A joint venture for production of Lastochka trains will be created with participation by Siemens AG, Sinara Group, and LLC Aeroexpress in 2011. As per the agreement between the partners, Lastochka trains will be assembled at the Ural Railway Machine Building Factory (part of Sinara Group) in Ekaterinburg. Total investments into production of the Lastochka electric train in Russia are preliminarily estimated to equal 100-150 million euros.
The Memorandum on establishing a joint venture for production, delivery and servicing of new generation trains with a Desiro series asynchronous pulling system (these trains were given the name “Lastochka” in Russia, meaning ”Swallow”) was signed between JSC RZD, Siemens AG and LLC Aeroexpress in May, 2010, in Sochi. Furthermore, a contract was signed in Berlin between JSC RZD and Siemens AG for delivering 16 Lastochka electric trains for commuter passengers, beginning localization of their production in Russia (about 35%) on September 21, 2010.
According to Vladimir Yakunin, president of JSC RZD, Russian Railways has an agreement with Siemens on joint production of 1,200 cars for commuter trains through 2020. The level of localization of production should reach 80% by 2017, in other words these cars will be almost completely built in Russia.