The plan to replace traditional internal combustion engines with electric drive systems in cars is being pursued by the Kaliningrad Avtotor plant. Vladimir Shcherbakov, the founder and principal owner, stated that used vehicles from the Kaliningrad region will be retrofitted with electric motors and associated components.
Officials say the initiative aims to accelerate the transition by scaling production of electrification kits. The team proposes to deliver about 150,000 electric motors of varying sizes along with compatible controllers for the entire sector. This figure surpasses the current industrial concept by about twofold. Naturally, there will not yet be a demand for a full fleet of new electric vehicles, so the focus is on producing electric kits that can replace the existing combustion engine and gearbox in cars already in operation, as part of the pilot project, according to Shcherbakov, who described the plan as a key step in the broader retrofit program. (Izvestia).
The estimated cost to replace an internal combustion engine with an electric motor, when deployed at scale for these retrofit kits, is projected to be under one thousand euros per vehicle.
- Video documentation and demonstrations can be found on YouTube
Source: Izvestia