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 (172 inches), 1.8 meters wide (70 inches), 1.66 m tall (65 in) and weighed 1,690 kilos with the batteries in (3,725 lbs). It produced 150 PS (148 hp / 110 kW), maxed out at 150 km/h (93 mph) and offered 450 km (280 miles) of range on a charge.
The prototype dubbed ‘Kama-1’ from last year – you can see it in our gallery and the video here – was a whole meter shorter and around 100 mm smaller in the other dimensions. It had only 109 PS (107 hp / 80 kW) and ran out of juice after just 250 km (155 miles) 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.