Russia’s second (or first?) richest man is spearheading an effort to produce Russia’s first hybrid electric car. Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Group and Russian truckmaker Yarovit is in a joint venture in which Onexim has poured 150 million Euros in, and the JV is expecting to roll out three prototype electric cars by December this year.
No specs have been revealed yet but the company claims that the new car will weigh about a third as much as the smallest cars produced now and will be priced between 300k to 450k rubles which is between RM33k to RM50k.
The Russian government is of course supporting Prokhorov as they want to wean the country off its fossil fuel dependency. Russia is the world’s biggest energy producer. However it is far from having an infrastructure that can support electric cars.
An IFC Metropol analyst also said that Russians are not used to a light car, given the number of car accidents in the country. According to the analyst, he doesn’t see a ‘real application’ for the cars produced by this project at the moment.
The JV intends to roll out the first cars in mid 2012.
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well, any car they can produce is better than their god-knows-how-long-has-it-been ladas and volgas,
dear sir it is on time modernizing russian car
ahh this guy is taking over the NBA team NJ Nets, glad he is on the news again…
This guy owns the New Jersey Nets Basketball team. Totally non-related.
Russian + Hybrid… I can see the smile on Jeremy Clarkson’s face.
Wah, damn garang ah his face.
hmmm…………
besides R&D, mr. mikhail should use the paid service of KGB to recce some innovations from other auto makers. Onexim get the blueprint, KGB get some fund & Russian get the proud. everybody wins!
hail mother russia, hail lotus-tuned lada!
I like the “Tissue Holder” on his left.. look so traditional. I tought he posing while reading Utusan Malaysia on cars ads portion… hehe
Hope they could build their car as good as they build their tanks!
Proton now have to act fast..if not they’ll losing again..
omg…the guy looks sooooo russian! LOL
let’s see if russians will finish up their obsession with lada 2107s after these new hybrids roll out of the production line. but i bet not. they have been selling the same boxy lada 2107 for decades till now for 200k rubles brand new and russians NEVER stopped buying it. they are everywhere. hurts my eye getting out on the street seeing and hearing those junks every morning. you thought proton is bad? think again.
no wonder the “smile detection” cameras are not selling well over there…
Russians are known better with their jets and airplanes. Russian hybrid? We shall see but it is encouraged and good that people with the power and wealth are willing to explore whatsoever technology that bring good for terran… I mean human.
PS: hybrid really not russian at all, nuclear power vehicle is more like it.