“We don’t want to undermine your business in Russia,” Putin said, addressing foreign carmakers while driving across Siberia in a Lada, produced by OAO AvtoVAZ, the country’s largest automaker. “Don’t just come here. We want you to gradually transfer your technology, increase production and help boost the technical expertise of our specialists.”

Russia raised import duties on cars and trucks last year, which don’t apply to models assembled in Russia, to protect slumping domestic production.

The government is also spending 21.5 billion rubles ($700 million) this year on cash incentives for car purchases. The four best-selling models through July were Ladas, followed by Renault SA’s Logan and Ford Motor Corp.’s Focus, which are all produced in Russia.

But even by  Putin's standards, the weekend road trip was remarkable. The route stretched over 1,240 miles from Khabarovsk, near the Pacific Coast, to Chita, an industrial city north of the Mongolian border. Mr. Putin was behind the wheel of the Russian-made car about half the distance and in a minivan for the rest, his spokesman said. He traveled a soon-to-be-completed stretch of a highway that he touted as "historic"—the first paved road linking eastern and western Russia.

In July, the last month figures are available from the authoritative Association of European Business in Russia, nine out of the top ten brands of cars sold in Russia so far in 2010 are locally produced.

The first seven months of 2010 saw sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia increase by 9% compared with the same period in 2009, or by 79,211 more sold units, according to the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee (AEB AMC).

Growth for July 2010 amounted to 48% or 55,907 units, as compared with the same period in 2009.

“Another month of strong growth clearly shows the continuing recovery in the automotive industry with a 48% increase compared to last July.

Martin Jahn, Vice Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee said, “Despite the traditional holiday period and the shortage of cars, the sales in July were almost at the level of June. Revival of the market allows optimism for the remaining months of the year. Nevertheless, in August and September, there may be some slowdown due to holidays on the majority of Russian factories as well as emergency weather conditions in several regions of central Russia.”

A Lada Kalina is one of the cars Putin wants to protect by hiking import duties on competitors