UAZ-80 years old: a requiem for the Ulyanovsk Automobile School
Modern army UAZ-315108. An example of the aesthetics of the Soviet period. Source: autodata1.com
MWM Spartan EV as the beginning of the end
В previous section stories it was about the glorious past of the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant. In the future, we will definitely talk about interesting UAZ models that happened in the history of the enterprise.
But now about the current deplorable state of the manufacturer of off-road equipment.
The 80th anniversary is a significant date that requires something extraordinary from the hero of the day. Nothing of the kind was demanded from the automobile plant in Ulyanovsk, they only expected a new car. Not just another modernization of the Patriot, which is, in fact, a slightly combed version of the UAZ-3151, but a new car capable of competing at least with used foreign cars of its class.
As a result, the factory workers are rolling out the electric reincarnation of the ancient UAZ-469 (in the modern reading "Hunter") under the name MWM Spartan EV. At first glance, here is a long-awaited breakthrough - in Ulyanovsk they are mastering the production of a new generation of equipment.
However, further investigation yields unexpected results.
Firstly, the electric "UAZ" is far from a serial copy, but only a "letter of intent." Only a couple of them were built.
Secondly, it was assembled not in Ulyanovsk, but in the unfriendly Czech Republic. It turned out to be a kind of prefabricated hodgepodge: the body and individual transmission elements - from Russia, batteries and electric motors - from China, put together and tuned - in the Czech town of Chernivtsi.
Electric "Hunter" from the Czech Republic. Source: spartan.mwmotors.cz
Further, it is even more exciting - most of the MWM Spartan equipment does not make for the Czech Republic, but rearranges the steering wheel and sells it to the UK.
The converted into an electric car "Hunter" in Europe is ready to sell at a price of 40 thousand euros, which is equivalent to 3,2 million Russian rubles. There is also a gasoline MWM Spartan RHD Petrol with a right-hand drive and a price of 19,7 thousand euros (about 1,6 million rubles).
Such a technique, perhaps, is in a certain demand in Foggy Albion, but we will clearly not be needed by anyone.
In general, the scheme is at least confusing and does not have clear market prospects under any circumstances. Nevertheless, the UAZ managers did not hesitate to show this pre-production miracle at anniversary events.
There are a lot of questions, apart from the sky-high prices, to the Czech electric "Hunter".
First of all, where can you go on a 150-kilometer range?
This heavy frame SUV with army roots, overcoming the Karakum desert in its best years, is forced to ride around the nearest charging stations. The developers of the MWM Spartan EV did not particularly bother themselves with engineering delights, they simply removed the standard ZMZ-40906 engine and installed a 163-horsepower electric motor with a lithium-ion battery. The checkpoint, transfer case, bridges and cardans - the relatives of the UAZ remained. Only now the torque of the Chinese motor is almost three times more than the standard one, and this will not in the best way affect the durability of the transmission. As eyewitnesses say, a UAZ with an electric heart instantly breaks from its place, exposing the nodes to shock loads.
MWM Spartan EV at the anniversary show. Source: autoreview.ru
It is no coincidence that Czech engineers endowed the MWM Spartan EV with such agility.
The traction capabilities of electric vehicles are in direct proportion to the battery charge level - the more the discharge, the less torque is transmitted to the wheels. For compact city electric cars, this is not a critical problem and mainly affects the responsiveness of the car.
But the SUV is more difficult. Imagine that there are still 20 kilometers to the cherished charging column, with only 30 kilometers left in the battery.
Will the car be able to overcome another limp forest track on a dying battery?
Therefore, the Czechs supplied the MWM Spartan EV with an excessively powerful motor and battery, in the hope of neutralizing the critical drop in thrust at the end of the 150-kilometer run on a single charge. By the way, a powerful three-phase electric motor, installed just above the front axle, is a very controversial solution for a car that can overcome a half-meter ford.
In general, the demonstration of the electric "Hunter", and even assembled in a NATO country for the 80th anniversary of the automobile plant, looks, if not a grin, then just a disregard for history.
However, there is nothing more to show to Ulyanovsk.
Missed Opportunities
The main problem of UAZ is the lack of a model with a margin for modernization in the range.
"Hunter" is now not even a car in the usual sense of the word, but is, together with the "Loaf", a truck of the N1G category. Such a trick made it possible to leave the car on the market and not equip it with an airbag, which is mandatory for passenger cars.
The production volumes of the civilian "Hunter" worth under 1 million rubles are so small that marketers do not dare to adapt new units for the car - the gearbox and the engine. Hunter's vehicle type approval expires next year and the SUV is likely to leave the scene. Only the military version of the UAZ-315108 with a turbodiesel and a traditional soft top will remain on the assembly line.
The Patriot family is now at an impasse and has been interrupted by minor upgrades for more than 20 years. The last important change was the automatic PUNCH Powerglide 6L50 gearbox from France. The cost of the new Patriot with such a transmission has already exceeded 1,5 million rubles.
Here, in fact, that's all.
Further, any modernization will entail a serious restructuring of the design, and hence the production technology. According to autoreview.ru, the adaptation of the Ford Puma diesel will require a frame redesign. Imported diesel, by the way, is now being prepared to be produced at the Sollers plant in Naberezhnye Chelny. Sollers controls UAZ, as well as Ford Sollers, for which it is developing a new diesel engine.
A ghostly hope may be the Chinese 110-horsepower diesel Weichai, which seems to be included in the engine compartment of the Patriot. But, apart from the exhibition car at the current exposition of "Comtrans", there are no more details.
The Patriot family is an elegant, but dead-end development direction. Source: avtovesti.com
For another four years, automotive experts talked with hope about the upcoming "Russian Prado", the fruit of the joint work of UAZ and Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.
The first prototypes were supposed to appear last year, but there are still no computer images. And, most likely, it will not - now UAZ is deprived of its own scientific and technical center, and the engineering center in the head Sollers has been abolished.
This is largely due to small production volumes - with a planned annual capacity of 100 thousand cars, no more than 30-40 thousand come out of the UAZ gates. At the same time, no more than 17 cars (that is, cargo) "Hunters" and "Patriots" thousand - everything else is equipment for government agencies and commercial trucks.
Since 2017, the car plant has been demonstrating a slow but steady decline in production volumes.
Who here wants to invest in new models?
The failed killer of the Gazelle is the UAZ Profi. The car, first of all, lacks a modern diesel engine. Source: mir-auto24.ru
This is not to say that the management did not try to pull the UAZ out of the hole into which it slowly but surely descends.
Several years ago, they decided to create a competition for Gazelle from Nizhny Novgorod. They made a truck "Profi", removed the front drive axle and ... failed in sales. Even foreigners, not to mention newcomers to this segment, do not dare to fight in a highly competitive market with GAZ itself.
As a result, the residents of Ulyanovsk lost time and money that they could well have invested in modernization.
For example, in Russia there is still no replacement or even a competitor for Bukhanka. There is nothing to change in the army the UAZ-315108 already mentioned above.
Many will say that an archaic construction of almost sixty years ago will be fine for the military. Indeed, the military environment is famous for its conservatism, but not to the same extent.
It is not always convenient to compare domestic equipment with imported counterparts, but it is often very clear.
German UAZ. Source: autoreview.ru
An example of the evolution of army construction is demonstrated by the Germans with the latest Mercedes-Benz G-Class of the 464 family.
The G-class is much younger than the bonneted UAZ - the first prototypes appeared in the 70s, but the options for the military by 2021 managed to turn into high-tech working tools. And although the total mass of the G-class is almost a ton more than the UAZ, they may well be considered conditional analogues.
"Nemets" is equipped with a turbodiesel of 249 liters. with., an eight-speed automatic transmission and can be supplied to the army both in a five-door version and in a chassis version for superstructures.
By the way, it was the competitor from the Bundeswehr at the end of the 80s that the Ulyanovsk people were guided by when they developed SUVs as part of the Wagon ROC. For obvious reasons, this topic was abandoned in the 90s, but for completely incomprehensible reasons, it was never revived in the hearty 2010s.
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