It remains open whether the Kama EV will ever enter mass production, but things have been looking up for Russia’s first battery vehicle since it got into the hands of Ruben Vardanian, a businessman from the top of the Forbes rating.
Formerly developed by the KamAZ Automotive
Plant, the Kama project now officially belongs to JSC ‘Kama’, a startup
co-owned by multiple major businesspeople. During a presentation last month,
the investors were shown a new prototype of the car, which was 4.4 meters long, 1.8 meters wide, 1.66 m tall and weighed
1,690 kilos with the batteries in. It produced 150 PS, maxed out at 150 km/h and offered 450 km of range on
a charge.
The prototype dubbed ‘Kama-1’ from last
year was a whole meter
shorter and around 100 mm smaller in the other dimensions. It had only 109 PS and ran out of juice after just 250 km of driving.
The new prototype still uses some structural and technological solutions found
in the Kama-1. KamAZ is now listed as an industrial partner to the project, while
SpbPU (Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University) is stated as the developer.
Production of light passenger EVs is due to begin at KamAZ facilities in three
years’ time.
Later on, the company plans on repurposing
the same technological platform to design a whole range of EVs on it, including
a sedan and a truck.
