Russian automaker Yo-Auto is promising to deliver the country’s first hybrid car in 2012. The company, founded by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, hopes to sell “peoples’ cars” for under $10,000 each for their first models.

Now those vehicles for under $10,000 won’t be hybrids naturally given the price tag, but the pre-orders are allowing customers to choose either standard petrol or CNG and either in two- or four-wheel-drive options. Standard equipment on Yo-Auto’s cars will include touchscreen control panel, GPS navigation system, automatic ICE start/stop while a rearview camera will be optional.

More recently however, Yo-Auto has been racing a hybrid car utilizing a rotary vane engine that works on both petrol and natural gas that’s linked to a pair of electric motors. This hybrid also uses a super capacitor rather than a lithium-ion battery pack.

Not many details surround the potential hybrid Yo-Auto is looking to produce, nor is there many details on their production model. But Yo-Auto’s website shows that a light commercial truck and a passenger CUV are also in the works.

Prokhorov is more well known in America as the owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team and recently announced that he intends to run for the Russian presidency in 2012. Currently Yo-Auto has an annual production capacity of 45,000 vehicles. They intend to double that amount after a second stage of the plant is built.

Check out a video after the break of Yo-Auto’s vehicle that was on display at the Frankfurt Auto Show this year.

[Source: Hybridcars]

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Mazda aims to build a vehicle assembly plant in Russia as the automaker recently announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Russian firm Sollers for a new joint venture.

Sollers, Russia’s industry giant, worked with many automakers, both domestic and foreign, to set up production and distribution channels throughout the country. Mazda’s future plant will be placed in Vladivostok, located in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District.

Sales in the country had risen 77 percent in the first nine months of 2011 for Mazda and there are no signs of slowing down. Given that Russia is currently Mazda’s second-largest European market, this new joint venture manufacturing plant to anticipate future demand should prove prudent.

[Source: Left Lane News]

U.S. private equity firm North Street Capital, has purchased Spyker, after a deal to sell the Dutch outfit to Russian investors fell through. The Financial Times reported the news after viewing a preliminary draft of the announcement.

It’s unclear how the Spyker sale will impact parent company Swedish Automobile, and its attempts to restructure Saab, the legendary Swedish car company once affiliated with Spyker. The Dutch sports car maker was due to be sold to CPP Global Holdings, owned by Russian investor Vladimir Antonov.

Swedish Automobile wanted to sell Spyker to focus on Saab, and a series of deals with Chinese auto makers were also announced, with little tangible results.

[Source: Financial Times]

The zany ZAZ takes to the skies! Ex-pilot Valery Bulgakov turned this 1987 ZAZ Tavria into an airworthy flying machine, through hard work, acres of sheetmetal, and lofty Russian ingenuity.

ZAZ cranked out thousands of Tavrias in the 1980s and 1990s, and aside from a few examples that must have been thrown off a cliff under various circumstances, none of them ever offered spacious aerial views. But Bulgakov welded wings onto the front fenders and rear windows, installing ailerons and painting them in patriotic Russian colors in order to tackle the skies: the flying car (of the future) can get up to 10 feet in the air, for a distance of 600 feet.

While this is a bit off from even, say, the efforts of the Kalinin K-7, Bulgakov doesn’t expect his car—which goes 0-60 in an FAA-unapproved 20 seconds—to revolutionize transportation. He uses the vehicle to train aspiring pilots: and given their familiarity with car controls, seems like a natural progression before tackling the challenges of the Yak-130.

Click the jump to see the flying Tavria in action. Translator not included, however.

[Source: Discovery Channel]

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It’s been 40 long years, but like perestroika, the last remnant of Italian-derived Soviet majesty finally comes to an undignified end. In Soviet Russia, production ends you!

The venerable Lada 2107, as it’s known, was already a 4-year old design (from Fiat) when it first entered production in 1970, gleaming and full of hope for the People. “Khrushchev’s Folly,” as it was never called, proved to multiply like the cockroaches that survived the Tsar Bomba—16.8 million were built, or if laid end-to-end away from Earth, enough to propel forth the Soviet Union’s space program.

The famous Lada sold for the low, low price of $7,500 under the names of Riva, 1500, 2101, 2107, and the evocatively-named Classic. Over the years it’s been raced, rallied, fornicated in, breathed upon by Lotus, driven through mud and snow with frightening alacrity, and abandoned in Chernobyl. Like cheap vodka and dubious wristwatches, it was still built in Russia, as well as Egypt, West Germany, and Kazakhstan.

And despite an increase of sales to 136,000 in 2010—spurred on by a “Cars For Clunkers-” type program that substituted clunkers for both parts of the equation—the last Classic strides off its line, Gosudarstvenniy Gimn SSSR blaring from the Red Army Choir. It takes its rightful place among the Volkswagen Beetle (ironically enough, given the Beetle’s original development) as two cars with the longest production runs. Legions of fans around the world (and some in the UK) will miss it. За тех, кто уже не с нами!

[Source: TTAC, Wikimedia Commons]

General Motors has its hands in all corners of the globe, and while most consumers know about their operations in Europe and South Koreas, their arm in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan is shaping up to be quite the powerhouse in the all-important Russian market.

Despite only being in existence since November, 2008 GM Uzbekistan’s operations are credited with a 40 percent rise in sales in the first half of 2010. With 45,217 Uzebkistani-made vehicles sold, GM ranked 10th overall in the Russia market. While GM produces mostly modern Daewood-engineered vehicles in Uzbekistan, consumers can also buy the Chevrolet Nexia (pictured above) based on the wretched Pontiac LeMans which originally debuted in 1986.

In Soviet Russia, opulence has you! The latest car designed and built in Russia is an SUV, but it isn’t decked out in armor or whale penis leather—it’s a hybrid, and it’s been so popular that the waiting list is backlogged for the next 10 years.

Bearing more than a passing resemblance to the BMW X6, the Ë-mobile (pronounced yo-mobile) received 51,188 orders in its first day. By the end of the week, more than 100,000 people had reserved one. If you want one, you’ll have to enjoy Soviet-throwback lines of waiting lists for the next 10 years—though since none of the 100,000 have paid a deposit yet, the figure could drop pretty sharply once cold, hard rubles are introduced into the mix.

The company Ë-Auto debuted this concept back in 2010, with mass production scheduled for next year in St. Petersburg. It plans to build a lineup of hybrid coupes and sedans alongside, all built with pride in Mother Russia (with some components from Austria’s Magna-Steyr). The price will start at the equivalent of $12,000-15,000; between the price and the homeland pride, there’s little surprise it’s been so popular.

[Source: Automobile]

One of the wildest car companies on the planet at the moment has got to be Dartz Prombron. This Russian automaker has made quite a few headlines with their over-the-top SUV’s featuring such optional extras such as diamonds and whale penis upholstery (how did they even find a supplier for that!).

Now they have teamed up with Grey Design (no, we haven’t heard of them either) to create an armored sportback called the Nagel. The model is named after Andrey Nagel who won the Monte Carlo rally in 1911. This special edition vehicle is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of that win. Nagel, an editor in chief of Avtomobil magazine was the first Russian to win this event and is still seen as a national hero.

The vehicle bearing his name is designed to pull yachts, and if the company’s claim of 2000-hp is to be believed, it won’t have any issue pulling a boat.

No date has been announced when the first Nagel will hit the parking lot of a marina.

[Source: World Car Fans]

In a land where the Ladas actually pass as respectable cars, the Chrysler Sebring has been rejected by consumers.

According to several reports, production of the Sebring (rebadged as the Volga Siber) has been stopped due to low demand.

The car (based on the previous generation model and not our current Sebring), was being produced by Russian automaker GAZ, after it purchased the tooling and rights from Chrysler. GAZ had expected to sell as many as 40,000 cars a year, but only ever produced a maximum of 2,500 cars.

Officials at GAZ have denied the reports so far, but sources indicate the automaker is preparing to partner with one or more other foreign automakers (the list includes Volkswagen, Mercedes and General Motors) to produce cars under contract for the Russian market.

[Source: Just-Auto.com via TheCarConnection]