In response to strengthening local demand, Velomotors is investing 400 million rubles (€5.5m-$6.1m) in a factory in Kransnodar Krai in the southern part of Russia with an intended production capacity of 300,000 bicycles per year. Making use of an abandoned plant, the project is important because it is the first one in the country to use aluminum frames. Velomotors was manufacturing 1.5 million bicycles per year at three Russian factories until 2014. The production slumped to 900,000 units per year after 2015 due to the economy crisis in Russia. The company harbored plans to open new production capacities in Krasnodar Krai in 2014, but those plans were halted because of weak demand at the time. In 2018, Russian companies manufactured 1.42 million bicycles, just as many as in the previous year, Russia has been importing around 2.2 million bikes annually during the past several years, mainly from Asia.