At a former Renault plant in Moscow, a Russian company is reviving the Soviet-era Moskvich brand, though the car’s design has been updated. The company, called Avtoframos, plans to produce two models of electric vehicles under the Moskvich name, which means “a person from Moscow” in Russian. The brand was popular in the Soviet Union from the 1940s to the 1990s but faded away after the collapse of communism.
The new Moskvich cars will be based on the Dacia Logan platform, which Avtoframos has been assembling since 2005 under a joint venture with the French automaker. The plant has a capacity of 160,000 vehicles per year but has been operating at less than half of that due to low demand and sanctions.
Avtoframos hopes to revive the plant and the brand by tapping into the growing market for electric vehicles in Russia and abroad. The company says it will invest $300 million in developing and producing the new Moskvich cars, which will have a range of 400 kilometers (250 miles) on a single charge and a price tag of around $15,000.
The company expects to launch the first model, called Moskvich E213, in 2023. It will be a compact sedan with a modern design and features such as a touchscreen, a digital dashboard, and a panoramic roof. The second model, called Moskvich E214, will be a crossover SUV that will debut in 2024.
The company says it aims to sell 30,000 Moskvich cars per year in Russia and export another 20,000 to neighboring countries such as Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. It also plans to enter the European market in the future, where it hopes to compete with other low-cost electric vehicles, such as the Dacia Spring.