As you know, VAZ at one time experimented a lot with alternative energy sources for vehicles. For example, work on «electric trains» in Tolyatti began back in the mid-seventies, but, having experimented a lot with an electric van based on the VAZ-2102, in the early eighties they turned away from this topic in order to recall it again in the nineties and two thousandths. However, in addition to battery-powered cars, at the turn of the century, together with the engineers of the Ural Electrochemical Plant in Togliatti, they took up the concept of a fuel cell car, using the usual “long” Niva VAZ-2131 as an aggregate carrier. The car received the simple name ANTEL — an abbreviation for the phrase «fuel cell car.» Then this project turned out to be commercially inexpedient, but now a group of private investors, having established KB OkANTEL, plans to launch the production of low-cost fuel cell vehicles based on the VAZ Oka.
While auto giants are looking for new options for supplying components and rebuilding logistics and production chains, private companies are changing the global approach to the automotive industry to reflect new realities. In early March, a group of venture investors announced the creation of OkANTEL Design Bureau, which bought the ANTEL project developments from AvtoVAZ and plans to assemble and certify extra-small fuel cell vehicles. To reduce the cost of design and development of the body, it was decided to use the body of the VAZ-11113 Oka for the construction of a new car. A batch of 180 painted bodies was found in the warehouse of the SeAZ plant that closed in 2013 and bought out to build pilot cars, certify and produce the first 150 commercial vehicles. In the future, it is planned to organize the assembly and painting of bodies at one of the currently free automobile enterprises — for example, TagAZ.
During March, the first work was carried out to adapt the ANTEL-2 unit, operating on hydrogen and air, for installation on the Oka. As in the original project, a special compressor is required in the design of the car, which will raise the gas pressure in cylinders from 250 to 400 atmospheres. However, the UEIP plant, commissioned by OkANTEL Design Bureau, developed a more compact version of the Photon electrochemical generator (recall that it was this one that was installed on Buran-2). The MVV-14 power plant will develop a current of 140V and produce 14 kW (ANTEL-2 based on the VAZ-2111 had 240V and 25 kW, respectively). The declared maximum speed will be 90 km/h, and the cruising range will reach 250 km. Improved heaters will reduce the warm-up time to the minimum allowable operating temperature of 60 degrees from 10-15 minutes (as it was with ANTEL-2) to 3-5 minutes.
Interestingly, the layout of the car will not change: as before, the “engine” will be located in front, but the spare wheel will be removed from the engine compartment. The fuel cells themselves will be located «underground», and the car will not have a rear seat — the VAZ-1111TE will be a two-seater, but with a luggage compartment increased to 400 liters. Taking into account the lack of foreign components and the shortage of chips, the design bureau is confident in the possibility of certifying a car without ABS, the ERA-GLONASS system and airbags.
The calculations of OkANTEL design bureau specialists show that with the production of at least 2000 cars a year the commercial cost of a kilowatt of power will decrease from the «cosmic» 2000-3000 dollars to two hundred. And this means that the installation itself will cost about 300-400 thousand rubles. So far, the company is evaluating cars from a pilot batch at 850,000 rubles and has already received over 200 applications for the purchase of a hydrogen-powered Oka. Well, the owners of ordinary «Okushki» can count on a discount of 100 thousand rubles if they hand over their car under the trade-in system against the cost of the VAZ-1111TE. Acceptance of applications from owners will begin this Friday, April 1.