It was almost impossible that zee Russians don’t want to have a piece of the big hybrid car industry pie. Yo-Auto, a joint venture between truck maker Yarovit and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim group, has started pre-selling the Yo-mobile, an ultra-cheap hybrid car designed with regular people in mind.
In fact, the pre-selling started off with an enthusiastic note, as they had already received 47,000 orders during the first day.
The car will be built at a plant near St. Petersburg, which can accommodate the production of some 45,000 units annually. Of course, if everything works out the way they planned, the capacity will double by building a second stage of the plant.
Now the part you’ve been expecting. How much would you pay for a hybrid car that reaches 75 mph, has a range of 250 miles and has a fuel efficiency of 65 mpg? I’d say the announced price of $12,000 to $15,000 would be enough and still a bargain, comparing with Toyota’s relatively ultra-expensive hybrid line.
Eastern European people know Russian things were meant to last, or at least they did in the past. I don’t know what the fashion is these days, but I guess they’ll be doing good stuff… at least in the beginning.
Oh, and one more thing. Russia is the world’s biggest natural gas producer, so the two companies did good when they thought implementing a CNG option in the price would catch to the public. Natural gas is both cheaper and cleaner than gasoline, you know… Now that’s what I call progress.
And, on top of these, the car really looks neat… don’t you think?
