Ford Sollers, Ford’s joint venture in Russia, has launched the start of full production of the Ford Explorer, marking the first time the SUV has been produced outside of the US.

The Russia-built Ford Explorers are being assembled in Ford Sollers Elabuga Assembly Plant in the Republic of Tatarstan for the Russian market. 

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Previously, only knock-down versions of Explorer had been built anywhere outside of the United States, including Elabuga, since 2012. Knock-down production means partially assembled vehicles are imported from the home plant – in this case, Ford’s Explorer plant in Chicago – along with the parts needed to complete them, and then fully assembled at the local facility.

In Russia, SUV sales accounted for 31 percent of the market in 2012, according to data from Russia’s AUTOSTAT market-research agency. In February, Ford Sollers sold more than 400 Explorers, a record in Russia. Additionally, Explorer sales are scheduled to begin in China in the coming weeks.

 “Russia is on its way to being the largest market in Europe and presents an enormous opportunity for growth,” said Ted Cannis, president and CEO of Ford Sollers. “We anticipate SUV sales to continue to grow as Russian customers prefer the image and performance these utility vehicles provide in severe weather and challenging road conditions.”

Ford says the Russia-made Explorers will be manufactured at the same high level of efficiency and to the same quality standards as those built at the Chicago Assembly plant.

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“With our partner Sollers, we were able to take the best practices from Chicago Assembly Plant as well as our other SUV plants around the world, and combine them with our latest advances in the Ford Production System to ensure we achieved world-class quality and significantly reduced lead times of one to two years,” said John Fleming, executive vice president, Global Manufacturing and Labour Affairs.

Ford says that its ‘Ford Production System’ (FPS) – which Ford starting rolling out in 2012 to its 65 plants worldwide – improves flexibility, process and quality, investment efficiency and capacity utilisation. In Russia Ford says it was able to significantly reduce investment costs and accelerate tooling and equipment installations in the Elabuga plant by using existing tool designs from its global tool shops. The implementation team visited several Ford facilities around the world to learn best practices for employing the global FPS in the Ford Sollers plant.

As production at Elabuga ramps up, Ford Sollers plans to hire an additional 500 employees to supplement the plant’s existing 1,500 employees. 

Ford adds that the Chicago Assembly Plant will continue to produce Explorers for the US and more than 60 other countries around the world.