Immediately following the holiday week, Sollers reported regarding resumption of work of the plant in Yelabugawhere in the near future a full-fledged production of JAC small-tonnage vehicles under its own brand should be organized (now they are being assembled here).
So far, however, we are only talking regarding its preparation: the equipment is being adjusted and modernized for the production of new models, technological chains are being built and work is underway to achieve quality stability. The launch of the assembly of Atlant vans and Argo tadpoles is planned for this year.
More than a year ago, we reported on the withdrawal of ZMZ V8 engines from production. But the same Sollers company, in the current conditions, decided to resume production of ZMZ engines series 523 and 524 at the Zavolzhsky Motor Plant in the first half of 2023. Recently, the produced engines were used only on PAZ buses, which gradually reduced their profitability. However, in the current unstable conditions, the production of a cheap and maintainable domestic motor, if not advanced, is great news.
True, there are certainly difficulties along this path: most of the technological capacities have been dismantled this year. And although the management assures that all enterprises involved in the chain have already begun pre-production, have all the equipment, tooling and tools been completely preserved?
Positive news also came from KAMAZ. Its newest K5 family is known to be in serious trouble, given the abundance of imported components. But Chelny managed to maintain the production of its own in-line “six” KAMAZ-910. Developed in cooperation with Liebherr, the Euro 5 engine with a displacement of 12 liters has a power range from 380 to 630 hp. Today, most of the parts, including those responsible, are Russian-made. This is a cylinder block, its heads, pan, flywheel, crankshafts, clutch housing, starter, pneumatic compressor and a number of less important elements. Now “anti-sanction” fuel equipment and an electronic control unit have been added to them. In addition, in the first half of next year, it is planned to switch to engines of the new KAMAZ-910.50 model with a working volume increased to 13 liters, which will reduce fuel consumption by regarding 1.8 l/100 km.
As part of the Safe Quality Roads project, a private company Volgabas to supply fifty CityRhythm-12 gas buses to Kursk. The first twelve low-floor vehicles with Weichai gas engines and automatic transmissions have already arrived in the city. The most remarkable feature of the bright green buses will be the voice of the announcer: stops will be announced by Vladimir Vinokur, a native of Kursk, who agreed to voice dozens of names.
