The Nissan Murano SUV is scheduled to be built at Nissan’s St. Petersburg production facility in Russia, the Japanese automaker recently announced.

This is good news for Nissan->ke62 and the employment line in the St. Petersburg plant, which will see an increase in job opportunities sometime in June to accommodate the impending production start of the Murano sometime in 2011. According to Nissan, the decision to produce the Murano SUV in St. Petersburg, which will then be sold exclusively in Russia, will result in a spike in employment from 850 employees to about 1,450 employees. In addition to that, Nissan is planning to add a second shift to expedite the production of all the models being built in St. Petersburg.

As it stands, Nissan has sold around 9,000 Muranos in Russia since the SUV made its debut in the country a little over four years ago and with the production of the car being done in local soil, the company expects to see an upswing in sales in the near future.

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