MOSCOW, February 2Kaliningrad Avtotor plans to begin mass production of electric cars of its own design in 2025, with the first copies to be presented this year, Valery Gorbunov, head of the board of directors of the auto holding, said in an interview.
«»Work on creating your own electric car is progressing on schedule. It is being created on the basis of a technologically independent platform and assumes high (more than 90%) localization. Most of the components, including critical ones, will be produced at new plants that Avtotor is creating “We are preparing to present pilot copies this year, and we plan to begin industrial production in 2025,” he said.
Gorbunov also recalled that the company’s own development includes two- and four-seater compact electric vehicles. It is expected that the new product will have equipment for people with limited mobility.
In addition, the company is working on the production of another electric car together with Chinese partners. A pilot batch of 200 electric vehicles was produced in December last year, all cars will be sold in Kaliningrad, Gorbunov said.
“All models of compact electric vehicles — both our own development and those produced as part of technological cooperation with partners — will be presented on the market under a common brand, since they are included in the overall large-scale program for creating the production of electric vehicles and auto components, which is being implemented by Avtotor,” explained top manager, specifying that the new car brand will be presented very soon.
The Avtotor car holding was founded in Kaliningrad in 1994. The plant was the first in Russia to begin producing cars of foreign brands, its capacity is more than 280 thousand cars per year. In the spring of 2022, Avtotor mainly produced BMW models, as well as Kia and Hyundai, the assembly of which has now been suspended. Since 2023, Avtotor has been collaborating with Chinese brands: Kaiyi, BAIC, SWM, JMC and Foton.
< span class="share" data-nosnippet="true" data-id="1905447778" data-url="https://ria.ru/20231026/krossover-1905447778.html" data-title='"Avtotor" launched serial production of the Chinese crossover BAIC X7'>