Russia’s Sollers and Italy’s biggest automaker Fiat announced on Friday they abandon a joint venture to produce passenger cars and sport utility vehicles in Russia.

Fiat and Sollers issued a joint statement saying that they decided “to pursue independent strategies to further develop their presence in Russia.”

A Fiat spokesperson told Itar-Tass that the talk is about breaking off the agreement signed on February 11, 2010, to set up a new production facility in Naberezhnye Chelny in the Republic of Tatarstan. The total investments were estimated at 2.4 billion U.S. dollars.

The two companies planned to produce 500,000 cars a year by 2015 in a bid to become the country’s second largest car maker.