The Avtotor company is going to start producing electric vehicles at a plant in Kaliningrad in 2023, said the chairman of the board of directors Valery Gorbunov. His words are quoted by TASS.
Little is known about machines yet. It is reported that KIA and Hyundai will participate in their creation. The cars will be aimed at low-income Russians, students and sedentary groups of the population. “We should, well, at least an experimental batch, [release] such a car in 2023,” Gorbunov said.
Now in Russia, electric cars are officially sold by several companies. Prices for electric cars Jaguar I-Pace and Audi e-tron start at 5.9 million and 6.5 million rubles, respectively, the cheapest Tesla (Model 3) costs from 4.6 million rubles.
At the same time, sales of new electric vehicles in Russia in 2020 increased by 95 percent compared to the previous year. At the end of 2020, the Russians bought 687 cars. The leader in this segment was the Nissan Leaf, which was bought 144 times. The second place is taken by the electric crossover Audi E-Tron (134 times), and the third is closed by Tesla Model 3 (110 times).
In the summer of 2020, the Russian government approved a 25 percent discount on electric vehicles, but it cannot be used – there is no mass production of electric vehicles in Russia yet.
The first serial Russian electric car was supposed to be City Modul 1 from Zetta. However, the launch of production was postponed indefinitely, because the company was unable to obtain a loan of 99.9 million rubles from the Industrial Development Fund (IDF).
Monarch is also developing an electric vehicle. At the first stage, 30 cars will be produced, 10 of which will be personalized and made of premium materials, including carbon fiber, aluminum, precious woods, premium leather and precious metals. There are two versions of the sedan. Without recharging, the car can travel from 372 to 407 kilometers and accelerate to 260 kilometers per hour. Prices start at 4.7 million rubles, while you can only pre-order.