Vadim Shvetsov, Sollers director general, told Interfax that Fiat and Sollers intend to invest 2.4 billion euros in a Russian joint venture, which is slated to build as many as 500,000 Fiat cars annually. It’s possible that the loan will be set up by the state-owned VEB bank, which has been tasked by the Russian government to support the modernization of the Russian economy. Shvetsov said that the application will be officially submitted to VEB at the start of July. And in the end of 2011 or sometime at the start of 2012, the venture will make 300,000 cars annually. In 2009, the global economic crisis halved annual sales at the height of the global economic crisis. The rate of new-car sales shot up to 31% year-on-year in May. However, year-to-date sales were still lower than during the same period in 2009.