Cheapest Hybrid – Russia’s most famous and richest oligarch has started a new business venture: trying to build and market the cheapest hybrid. Mikhail Prokhorov’s ONEXIM investment group reportedly has invested € 150 million in the project, along with additional support from the Russian government. The first vehicle will begin testing in last year, and is expected to hit the road in 2012 at a price that has been estimated about $ 10,000 to $ 13,000.
Russian Oligarch Moves Forward With Plans for “World’s Cheapest Hybrid”
In the mid of this year (May), Prokhorov announced the first details of this cheapest hybrid program, which he said was based around the development of a hybrid car platform that can run on either oil or natural gas liquids. The drive train has made the cheapest hybrid to adaptable for use in 3 vehicles: a sport car, a
truck, and an affordable mini car that will become as a multimedia center on wheels.
Prokhorov has said that the auto manufacturers are moving to simpler and greener vehicles. He said that, “These are as simple to assemble as toys, so our country has been given a chance to compete, because foreign carmakers will need time to adapt to this new trend.”
Cheapest Hybrid
The bully in the report Prokhorov’s awkwardly-translated should not come as a surprise to anyone who saw his 60 Minutes profile that aired last year after he made headlines in the United States to buy New Jersey Nets NBA franchise. Prokhorov sure that the cheapest hybrid car would be able to compete because of their affordability and technology mix of ambition, so confident in fact, that he seems to have been nicknamed the car the town after himself, calling it “Mischa-Mobile.”
Next year, ONEXIM and Yarovit Motors will begin renovation of the facilities at the center of Russia Russia automotive ex Togliatti. The facility will be capable of producing 10,000 cars per year, but with support from the Russian government and one of the richest men in the world, maybe that additional capacity could be added as soon as the request set. Prokhorov said that as the sales figures began to approach 100,000 units per year, car prices can go down as little as $ 7,000.
Hopefully, the engineers who worked on this project do not share the assessment Prokhorov about how easy it is to build and design a new vehicle. With the assumption of “Mischa-Mobile” does not reach the road-and-readiness although that can be sold as cheaply as promised to monitor its success should be interesting in the coming years.
