The Russian car manufacturer Avtotor has released the first pictures of a new electric prototype called Amber. It’s 100% made in Russia and has been developed in partnership with the Russian Polytechnic University of Moscow (MAMI).

Since the start of the Ukrainian war, the Russian industry has been almost entirely on its own since all Western manufacturers have withdrawn from the country. Only in the east, there’s a serious import of Chinese cars, some of them rebadged with Russian logos.

City car

That’s why the Moscow Polytechnic University received a demand from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to develop an electric city car. The production version would then be built by Avtovor in a factory where BMW, Kia, and Hyundai models were assembled before the Ukrainian conflict.

According to the Russian media RBC, the compact EV prototype can reach a top speed of 80 kph thanks to an electromotor developing 5 kW. The range of the car is said to be 100 kilometers.

To people who think that the design is a little awkward, RBC confirms that the production version will be different. The production is planned to start in 2025 in the Avtotor factory. We presume it’s meant to be a small, electric delivery car for the bigger inner cities in Russia.

Avtotor

Avtotor is an automobile manufacturing company located in Kaliningrad, Russia. Avtotor was established in 1996. It became one of the bigger assembling companies in Russia and had contracts with the Hyundai Group, BMW, General Motors, and the Chinese manufacturers NAC and Chery Automotive.

In 2012, it tried a deal with the Canadian automotive company Magna, but the cooperation didn’t come through, according to  Avtotor founder Vladimir Scherbakov, because the Canadian government sabotaged the deal.