Nissan celebrated the production of its 250,000th vehicle at its manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, Russia, yesterday.

The landmark vehicle was a blue Nissan Qashqai 2.0L 4WD CVT, the latest milestone for the plant workforce, who this year celebrated the 10th anniversary of the St. Petersburg site with the launch of the new Nissan Murano.

With models like this Qashqai engineered specifically for Russian driving conditions, Nissan now manufactures 95 percent of its models sold in Russia.

Congratulating the workforce, Dmitry Mikhailov, Nissan Vice-President for Manufacturing in Russia, said: "The progress achieved highlights the growth and development of the youngest Nissan car-making plant in Europe, whose primary goal is to improve its performance with each new vehicle rolling off our production line."

To achieve this landmark, more than 375 million parts, 2,000 tons of paint and 28,300 working hours have been involved since production started in June 2009.

Total investment in the plant now stands at 312 million euros (Rs 2,384 crore), with current production covering the Nissan X-Trail, Pathfinder, Qashqai and Murano.

Manufactured in St. Petersburg for the Russian market since October 2015, Nissan engineers in Russia made more than 200 changes to the Qashqai for the country's road and weather conditions, including changes in the chassis design, increased ground clearance and localised tyres. In the 13 months since 21,450 Qashqais have been manufactured in St. Petersburg.