Kortezh (Cortege) Project
Vladimir Putin is getting ready to take
delivery of a brand new limousine, named Kortezh (Cortege). The Cortege project,
which was allocated 3.7 billion rubles (US$ 54 million) this year, will provide
Russian-made vehicles for transportation of top local government officials, as
MoscowTimes reports, quoting RIANovosti.
It will be offered in four different
body styles, limo, sedan, SUV and minivan and unlike President Obama's
Cadillac, nicknamed the 'Beast', it will be available to all Russians who can
afford it, as the manufacturer plans to produce 4,000-5,000 units of each
version.
Production will kick off in 2017, at the
Central Scientific Research Automobile and Automotive Engines Institute (NAMI)
in Moscow, and in the first year, 200 examples will be built, while the rest
will roll off by the end of the decade.
Porsche was in charge of helping
developing the Kortezh's powertrain, as Commerce and Industry Minister, Denis
Manturov, confirmed, according to SputnikNews, but the exact engine found under
the hood of the car remains a mystery. Nevertheless, we may be looking at a V12
turbo with approximately 800 HP, as a previous report writes.
Deliveries of the first lot of Kortezh
cars will commence "around the end of 2017 to the beginning of 2018",
as Manturov said, and President Putin is expected to receive a model from the
initial batch.
