Just after the holiday week, Sollers reported on resumption of work at the Yelabuga plantwhere in the near future a full-fledged production of small-tonnage JAC vehicles under its own brand should be organized (now they are being assembled here).
So far, however, we are only talking about its preparation: the equipment for the production of new models is being adapted and modernized, technological chains are being built and work is being done to achieve qualitative stability. The launch of the assembly of the Atlant vans and the Argo tadpoles is planned for this year.
More than a year ago, we reported on the discontinuation of ZMZ V8 engines. But the Sollers company itself, under the current conditions, decided to resume production of ZMZ 523 and 524 series engines at the Zavolzhsky Motor Plant in the first half of 2023. Recently, the engines produced have been used only on PAZ buses, which has gradually reduced their profitability. However, in the current unstable conditions, the production of an affordable and maintainable, if not advanced, domestic engine is very good news.
True, there are certainly difficulties along this path – most of the technological capabilities have been dismantled this year. And although the management assures that all enterprises involved in the chain have already started pre-production, have all the equipment, tools and tools been fully preserved?
Positive news also came from KAMAZ. Its new K5 family is known to be in serious trouble, given the abundance of imported components. But Chelny managed to keep the production of its own KAMAZ-910 “six” on the line. 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 the responsible ones, are Russian-made. This is a cylinder block, its heads, sump, flywheel, crankshafts, clutch housing, starter, air compressor and a number of less important elements. Now “anti-penalty” fuel equipment and an electronic control unit have been added. In addition, in the first half of next year, it is planned to switch to engines of the new KAMAZ-910.50 model with an engine capacity increased to 13 liters, which will reduce fuel consumption by approximately 1.8 l/100 km.
As part of the Safe Quality Roads project, a private company Volgabas will supply fifty CityRhythm-12 gas buses to Kursk. The first twelve low-floor vehicles with Weichai gas engine and automatic transmission have already arrived in the city. The most notable feature of the bright green buses will be the announcer’s voice: stops will be announced by Kursk native Vladimir Vinokur, who agreed to speak dozens of names.
