Last year, construction of a plant for the production of passenger hybrid “E-mobiles” began in St. Petersburg. The main investor of the project, billionaire and presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov promises to start selling new budget cars this year.

An agreement on the construction in the St. Petersburg industrial zone of Maryino of the first plant for the production of hybrid “E-mobiles” between the E-auto company, owned by the Onexim group (51%) of Mikhail Prokhorov and the Yarovit holding of Andrey Biryukov (49%) with the city authorities , was signed in mid-April last year. The day before, experimental models of “E-mobiles” were personally tested by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, with whom Mikhail Prokhorov is going to compete for the presidency in the upcoming elections.

Construction of the plant officially started in June. For this purpose, Onexima and Yarovita structures purchased 40 hectares in Maryino from VTB Capital. The amount of the transaction, according to experts, could be $12-20 million. In addition to the E-plant, it is also planned to build an enterprise for the production of components, Technoexim, as well as a plant for assembling Yarovit trucks.

Investments in the construction of the St. Petersburg “E-plant” are estimated at 6.5 billion rubles. Its capacity will be 45 thousand vehicle sets per year, of which 20 thousand will be used for the assembly of "E" in St. Petersburg, another 20 thousand - at "E-factories" in other regions, the remaining 5 thousand vehicle sets will be used for warranty and service service. The enterprise will employ at least 700 people. In the future, it is planned to double its capacity.

The Yarovit truck assembly plant is the own project of Andrey Biryukov, president and co-owner of the Yarovit holding (also general director of E-auto). Investments in this enterprise will amount to 2.3 billion rubles. Onexim is not participating in this project, but Yarovit may have another partner, the company says. According to BG, negotiations are underway with the Dutch truck manufacturer DAF. The capacity of the Yarovit plant at the first stage will be 6 thousand trucks per year. It will also employ about 700 people.

To date, according to the E-auto website, more than 170 thousand pre-orders have been received for E hybrids, most of them for E-crossovers. Therefore, Andrei Biryukov said earlier, this model will be the first to be produced in St. Petersburg, the next one (which one has not yet been decided) will appear in six to eight months. Previously, the E-auto company announced plans to produce four types of models: crossovers, coupes, microvans and vans. However, now pre-orders can only be made for crossovers and vans. The declared price of the cars, depending on the configuration, will be 320-490 thousand rubles. All “E” models will be equipped with the same gasoline and gas engines (first German, then Russian, which are still being finalized) internal combustion 45 kW (60 hp), they will be powered by generators that recharge energy storage units on the wheels.

According to St. Petersburg authorities, the city will account for at least 20% of E-mobile sales. These cars will be sold through the existing dealer network of other brands that have underutilized capacity; there are no plans to build their own “E” showrooms, said Mikhail Prokhorov. E-auto will formulate standards for dealers by mid-2012, Mr. Biryukov promised. It is possible that “E-mobiles” will be sold on the same platform with other brands, but it is possible that some dealers will want to abandon any brands altogether in favor of “E,” he believes. According to him, to date, E-auto has received several hundred proposals for cooperation from regional dealers.

The St. Petersburg E-plant should launch production by the end of this year. Recently, Mikhail Prokhorov promised that these cars would go on sale in December. E-auto says that in the first quarter of this year, the installation of metal and reinforced concrete structures at the construction site in Maryino will be completely completed, the installation of wall panels will begin, and the overall readiness of the enterprise will be about 60%.

At the same time, in November, information appeared in the media with reference to investment bankers that the owners of E-auto want to sell the company due to a lack of funds to implement the project. Later, a representative of Onexim denied this, noting that the E-auto company is indeed looking for debt financing and does not rule out the sale of a minority stake in the manufacturer to a strategic partner through an additional issue of shares. But there is no talk of giving up control, he clarified.

Among E-auto's potential partners in the production of the Russian hybrid, the French Bollore Group, which produces batteries, and the Canadian component supplier Magna, which already has several production sites in St. Petersburg, were previously named.

If the project to build the “E-plant” is implemented, then the fifth plant for the assembly of passenger cars and the first enterprise with Russian capital will appear in St. Petersburg. When the St. Petersburg “E-plant” reaches its design capacity of 90 thousand cars per year and taking into account the company’s plans to organize enterprises in other regions of the Russian Federation (plans to organize production in Belarus were also announced), “E-mobiles” will be able to claim a significant share Russian automobile market. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2.5 million new passenger cars were sold in Russia in 2011. Analysts believe that in the future the Russian market will grow by 5-10% per year.

Maxim Vertman

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