Say you want about Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the man sure has a thing for cars – from driving F1 racers to overseeing the development of his country’s new presidential limo, and now, he has a new special EV.
It’s one of four prototypes built by Russian firm Yo-Auto, a joint venture between SKD truck maker Yarovit and Mikhail Prokhorov’s ONEXIM investment group.
The company stared back in 2012 with plans to launch the Yo-Mobil, a five-door hybrid hatch with a 1.4-liter gasoline Fiat engine and two electric motors featuring a body made from composite materials.
However, it failed to deliver and in April of 2014, ONEXIM “sold the technology and development rights for its Yo-mobil hybrid vehicle to the state-run NAMI institute for €1” because “the sharp weakening of the auto market has made it impossible to go ahead with the project, and make a profit,” according to an RT report.
While Yo-Mobil now works on other EV projects under the umbrella of NAMI, the original company had built four prototypes of a different car named the Yo-Crossover, a three-door electric hatch – you could call it Russia’s…BMW i3.
Mikhail Prokhorov kept the white example for himself gifting the red car to Russian president Vladimir Putin and the blue one to Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky – no word on what happened to the fourth EV.
So, if you ever it see on the road – probably next to a parade of security cars, there’s a good chance that Vladimir might be behind the wheel.
Story References: Wroom, Photos via Rusautomobile
Thanks to Alexander!
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