President Putin was shown another brainchild of the Russian auto industry.
Photo: REUTERS
Putin did not get behind the wheel of the E-Neva
President Putin was shown another brainchild of the Russian auto industry. This happened on Wednesday, when the head of state visited the Obukhov plant in St. Petersburg. The company is part of the defense company Almaz-Antey and specializes in creating command posts for missile forces and developing cars as part of the conversion.
Last year, a demonstration sample of the E-Neva C-class electric crossover was assembled at the plant and shown to the president. The car looks quite modern, light gray, with a black roof. Accompanied by the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov, Putin approached the car, opened the driver’s door himself, looked into the passenger compartment, but did not get in. Then he opened the passenger door, closed it softly, almost released it; the door, however, moved away. It seems that the seals need to be improved…
However, the head of state did not focus on this. After inspecting several more automotive designs developed at the plant, he gave a thumbs up and said, “Go ahead.”
E-Neva electric car, what kind of car.
The E-Neva compact electric crossover is a 4.5 m long all-wheel drive vehicle (like the Volkswagen Tiguan), and its front-wheel drive is plug-in, as specified on the company’s website. Thanks to the modular platform, the car can be equipped with both a purely electric installation and a gas-electric hybrid. That is, it can run on both gasoline and an electric motor. In addition, when running on gas, the battery of the electric motor will be recharged, approximately, as it happens with the battery of conventional cars.
The car will be able to accelerate to a speed of 100 km/h in 8.5 seconds (up to 60 km/h in 2.7 seconds) and cover 463 km on a single battery charge. In addition, the hybrid modification (gas + electric) has a walking distance of almost 1000 km! This is to make it clearer, from Moscow to Brest at a gas station. The maximum speed is 197 km/h. The total power of two electric motors installed on a purely electric modification will be about 500 horsepower.
Otherwise, it will be an ordinary modern crossover. A roomy trunk of 610 liters (this is more than that of classmates), a multimedia system with a digital dashboard, like all modern foreign cars, a projection screen on the windshield, a 15-inch touch screen.
Automobile expert Tuzov suggested that the E-Neva electric car will be produced at the former Nissan plant in St. Petersburg.
Photo: REUTERS
Where will the E-Neva electric car be produced?
There is still no official information about where the novelty shown to Putin will take place. In an interview with KP.RU, auto expert Alexei Tuzov suggested that this was most likely done at the former Nissan plant in St. Petersburg. This platform has passed to our AvtoVAZ and we need to load it with something.
Some experts called the Avtotor plant in Kaliningrad an alternative site for a defense electric train. But it is more logical to produce a car named after the river-symbol of St. Petersburg in the northern capital. In addition, as one of the AvtoVAZ statements says, in order to load the Nissan site, the company is ready to consider “additional partner projects, for example, for the production of an electric car created in St. Petersburg.”
There is also no official information about the release date of the first serial samples, but experts agree that it is most likely already in 2024.
