Evolution
This spring, Lipetsk Region and Motorinvest signed an exclusive investment contract for the production of electric vehicles under the new Evolute brand. Machine production started in September. Evolute plans to produce 2,000 electric vehicles by the end of 2022, the company’s press service told socialbites.ca.
“Now the factory is assembling the i-PRO sedan. Before the end of this year, the assembly of the i-Joy compact crossover and the Evolute i-Van minivan will begin. The i-Jet cross-coupe is scheduled to be launched in 2023. The Motorinvest factory will confirm that the company’s next year He said his current plan is to produce 10-15 thousand electric vehicles.
The company currently has Evolute dealers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Voronezh, Krasnodar and Sochi, and an electric car dealer will appear in Rostov-on-Don in the near future.
The recommended retail price for a small i-PRO electric sedan is 2.99 million rubles. Thanks to the state contribution, the cost was reduced by 925 thousand rubles. That is, it will have to cost about 2.1 million rubles.
According to the manufacturer, such a sedan can travel up to 420 km on a single battery charge (measured according to the WLTP standard). In terms of body size, the car is similar to the Kia Cerato. It turned out that the electric car is a copy of the Chinese Dongfeng Aeolus E70 2020 model. Wrote formerly socialbites.ca.
Evolute can count on several hundred cars being sold per month thanks to the subsidies, and independent auto industry consultant Sergey Burgazliev believes the company could sell no more than 10-12k cars next year.
“The sedan, which is their main model, is not the latest model. Even if we take into account the discount on the electric car, not everyone is ready to pay that much. Thanks to the subsidies, Evolute will make more profit, grow and develop. But in the bulk segment, it is unlikely that they will replace manufacturers who left in the next three years,” Burgazliev told socialbites.ca.
However, auto expert Igor Morzharetto believes Evolute has good prospects in terms of business.
“The company has many promising corporate clients. This is a good project, except for one nuance:
It is not certain that the Chinese companies Evolute works with will continue to cooperate if they are threatened by US sanctions.”
Morzharetto states in an interview with socialbites.ca.
“Moscow”
Renault transferred control of its factory to the Moscow government in May of this year, after which the historical name of Moskvich was returned to the enterprise. According to the mayor Sergei Sobyanin, the factory will start operating in December of this year, it is planned to assemble 600 cars per month, 200 of which are electric cars.
Moskvich has already collected applications for official dealer status and received 340 surveys from 23 Russian cities in three weeks. At the same time, it is not yet clear which cars will be produced under the historical brand by the end of October.
Experts say that Chinese cars of the brand JAC used presentations to show a sample “Moskvich” model range.
Sergey Burgazliev believes that “Moskvich” will not be able to replace Renault, which left Russia.
– If they produce at least 15-20% of the volume in this plant, then it is possible to talk about something, but now this project does not inspire confidence. It is clear that JAC cars will be produced at the factory, but there is no certainty.”
Automobile expert Igor Morzharetto believes that Moskvich will work in the same way as Evolute, with car assembly from ready-made Chinese car kits. According to the predictions of the automaker, Moskvich’s electric cars will be in the same price segment as those of Evolute – 3-4 million rubles, excluding state subsidies.
The source says that the cost of gasoline “Moskvich” will be around 2-3 million rubles.
Igor Morzharetto admits that the Russian brand cannot replace Renault. Under the French brand, cars were produced, which could be purchased for 1 million rubles – there are no longer physical cars on the market for such money.
EVM Pro
Last year St. The creators of the EVM Pro from the company “Electric Vehicles Manufacturing Rus”, founded in St. Petersburg, call their brainchild the first “electric truck” in Russia.
EVM Pro was created on the basis of the chassis of the long-base UAZ “Profi”. The manufacturer claims that the power reserve of the car on a single charge is 300 km, its weight is 3.5 tons, and its carrying capacity is up to 1 ton.
The electric truck is planned to be produced in a factory with an area of about 3,000 square meters in the Technopolis Moscow special economic zone. The cost of the car will be 3.5 million rubles, of which 650 thousand the buyer will be able to return thanks to state subsidies, clarified Magazine “Behind the Wheel”.
Sergey Burgazliev, an independent consultant in the automotive industry, is confident that EVM Pro will not be launched on a large industrial scale. In contrast, auto expert Igor Morzharetto believes it
Any attempt to make an electric car based on an old model is a dead end.
“UAZ is such an old car that it is trying to somehow replace it … An electric car should still be created from scratch. It seems to me that this project with an electric truck is an attempt to show that we can and can do something,” emphasizes the interlocutor.
Replacing the Chinese Nissan
In mid-October, Nissan’s St. It has been learned that a factory in St. Petersburg and other assets of Nissan Manufacturing Rus have been approved to be sold to the Russian Federation, which is represented by FSUE NAMI, which is affiliated to the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. Denis Manturov, head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that the transfer agreement is scheduled to be completed in early November.
With data According to the newspaper “Vedomosti”, the Nissan plant will continue to operate with the participation of the Chinese automaker through “KamAZ”. One of the accepted partners from the PRC is the automaker FAW. In this case, the factory will follow the path of Moskvich, explains Sergey Burgazliev.
Such a scenario is real, but the assembly of cars will not begin before 2024, the expert is sure.
“Nissan is a very flexible and cleverly designed factory. It can produce sedans, crossovers, station wagons – anything that does not have a frame and is slightly larger than the Nissan Murano. Burgazliev argues that most Chinese crossovers are included in these parameters.
Iranian “budgets”
Iranian automaker Iran Khodro, which produces cars in the price category of about 1 million rubles at the end of summer, declaration About plans to do business in Russia. Following him about similar intentions announced Iranian SAIP.
Demand for cars from these companies in Russia is possible only if production is localized, because cars will be very expensive if imported from Iran, says Igor Morzharetto.
“Only in the case of localization, cars can be competitive. What Iranian manufacturers offer is not much better than AvtoVAZ products. Nobody buys them for 1.5 times the price of Lada,” he notes.
Expert Burgazliev also expressed his doubts about the future of cars from Iran. To begin with, these manufacturers should study the reaction of consumers, establish relationships with dealers, conduct test drive tests of cars. He added that it may take a year for these issues to be resolved.