5 meters, 9 seats, forced engine… is that Lada? Yes!

Body – load-bearing

Electric bus, water bus, Nivobus… You say there is no such word? And how else to call the Niva, in which there are nine seats?

Show such a modification to the original three-door and the old woman’s round eyes will pop out of the radiator grille’s orbits.

The body in the Nizhny Novgorod “Promtech” is cut right behind the front doors and built by yourself – made on the basis of a steel frame and plastic panels.

What is important: the Cube is not a semi-frame, but with a load-bearing body!

The distance between the axles grows from 2200 to 3050 mm, the total length – from 3640 to 4900 mm. Plus a high roof.

I already talked about the Niva Cube cargo, which has almost five cubic meters of space. And now before me is the same model, but in the passenger incarnation.

The second and third row of seats are equipped with folding mechanisms (obviously not on a flat floor) and eco-leather upholstery. At Promtech they have been making chairs themselves for a long time, so the task is familiar.

Legroom is adequate, but the rating is only lateral. Above the driver’s compartment, the roof remained at a standard level and the view of the rear passengers rests on the raised vertical wall.

The body in the back of the cabin is wider, the wheel arches do not push from the sides, so the three of us sit quite normally. The trunk is small, but certainly not symbolic. Leaving the two-row configuration, you can stack endlessly on the folded rear seatbacks.

How does it drive? Which engine?

The multi-seat Niva drives reasonably well thanks to an experimental engine. Engine 1.7 was swung from 83 to 106 forces.

By what methods, who completed it, the promtekhovites are stubbornly silent. It was suggested that the company is from Tolyatti. It seems to be true: there are specialists there.

But I don’t believe the increase was achieved through chip tuning. More than a quarter on top – for an old aspiration it is impossible. There is no turbine (although they think of such an option), outwardly the engine does not differ from the standard one. It means that something has changed in the hardware.

Only after certification are all characteristics and possibly reconciliation characteristics known. And even the firmware is not final yet. The reliability of such an engine is also a mystery.

With 106 forces, the empty Niva Cube drives healthy. Under load it drops subjectively to the dynamics of a three-door with a standard engine. Well, what did you want when you actually drove a minivan?

Played with the rear air suspension that complements the springs. In the cabin there is a convenient, although not very aesthetic unit: a pressure gauge, a pressure relief valve, an activation key for the compressor for pumping. On an empty car there is not much difference, but with a full load it makes sense to increase the pressure. And reduce the drawdown, and you’ll feel more confident in the corners.

Front – three seats

In Promtekh, referring to certain requirements for ambulances, they installed a double seat instead of the standard passenger seat. In a car where it’s busy and together!

However, a solution that would fit 9 people in a car is unlikely to make it to the series. An extended backrest with a second headrest does not interfere. To squeeze the right pad in, I had to cut off a corner of the console with the heated seat keys.

But the handbrake and the lock of the only seat belt remained under the pillow, and it is impossible to use them in this form. The cushion can be lifted and the handle tightened, but then it will not fall back into the horizon. All this has to be redone, and since we are talking about security systems, you will not get away with cheap solutions. Until we see them, it’s fairer to think of the Niva Kub as an eight-seater.

Commercial or Sports

The intrigue with the engine was heated by Grant Cube standing next door. It’s even more powerful – 116 powers! Let me remind you that serial mass versions have a maximum of 106 liters. with., and Grants Sport had 118 “horses”. But those were 16-valve engines, and here I open the hood and see the basic “eight-knock” VAZ-11182. An increase of almost 30%!

And secrets again. They suggest waiting for the end of certification and say the same as about Niva: they themselves have not yet opted for the option of final calibrations. Accordingly, all arguments about the resource, gas mileage and price are still meaningless.

An empty Grant with such an engine is an airplane.

It makes sense to order a car with this engine if a constantly large load is expected (permissible total weight of 2160 kg). But for light loads I wouldn’t recommend it. The original 8-valve for 90 forces at VAZ turned out to be quite powerful, and you believe in its resource more than in a tuning unit. And wouldn’t such a car turn out to be dangerous in combination with a jigit driver? No ABS, rear suspension rolls, unloaded and not the most efficient: a powerful cocktail. Well, the increase in the price of the car should not be discounted either.

***

The process of getting OTTS on both machines has started. Reception of orders is expected to open this year, but deliveries – precisely only in 2023. Prices are expected to range from 1.6 to 1.7 to 2 million rubles or more.

Nivobus has no analogues. But if you need a truck, the JAC and Dongfeng trucks are not much more expensive, which were originally born trucks without any “alternate history”.