Interview with the chief designer of AVTOVAZ Sergei Rump.
On September 14, the conference " Prospects for the development of cars will be held in Togliatti. Development of vehicles with alternative energy plants. " It is organized by the Russian Association of Automotive Engineers (AAI), Togliatti State University (TU) and actually AvtoVAZ, on the territory of which the participants will gather. For the AAA, which meets regularly, the current-75-I account; the number is beautiful, though not round. In addition, the event is timed to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the OAO Avtovaz OAO Avtovaz, the 25th anniversary of the Avtovaz OAO Avtovaz and the 60th anniversary of the TMU. It is expected that most representatives of Russia's car elite are coming to the conference-officials, heads of auto industry, leading engineers and designers. Invited A. Rakhmanov (Director of the Department of Automotive Industry, Ministry of Industry), M. Nagaytsev (director of NAMI), Chief Designer of KAMAZ. Valeev, representatives of Sollers, GAZA, Gazprom. Foreign companies will be represented by Renault-Nissan, Porsche, Robert Bosch. The main topics of sections are hybrid vehicles, cars on compressed gas and fuel cells, electric vehicles. That is, everything that is now intensely worked not only by VAZ, but also by many other Russian car plants and NII. We have asked the chief designer of AvtoVAZ, Sergei Kurduk, to comment on the current work in the field of environmental transport. The more so that Sergei Askowdovich is in charge of the working group on the organization of the above-mentioned conference. Sergey Kurdyuk R. A.-hybrids and electric vehicles are the most popular. Are the organizers of the conferences conjunctiqued to the public or ...? C. C. " You know, there is a simple desire to decide what we are in Russia to do in this area, to which parties to go. Discuss that it is appropriate to develop and implement and what is not. R. A.-Can you show me something from the VAZ? C. C. "There will not be a big exhibition of our achievements there, but we will show you something," he said. We have a prototype of an electric car at the base of Kalina, there is a "gas" Prior CNG, there are several hybrids. R. A.-Project "ElectroKalina" at what stage? C. C. " Two prototypes have been made, they drive, different tests pass. In a lithium-ion battery and an asynchronous 40-kilowatt engine, we were able to increase the mileage to almost two hundred kilometers in the city. R. A.-Your French partners and shareholders are actively implementing electric vehicles. Were they not trying to persuade you to reorient the work of VAZ in this direction? C. C. -It's cool to tell us not to. But the restrictions are clear, including to representatives of Renault-Nissan. No breakthrough, alas, is yet to be expected. R. A.-Hydrogen work for the VAZ is closed permanently? C. C. -Yeah, we're not doing that right now. In the next two years, the development of this topic will not be resumed. R. A.-As the principal designer, what kind of "ecological" direction is the most promising? Proira CNG C. C. -For VAZ, what we call CNG, compressed natural gas, methane. This is the most realistic prospect for Russia-gas reserves are huge, they are cheap, and environmental indicators are remarkable. R. A.-The CNG project is still occupied by a handful of enthusiasts led by Giorgi Mirzoyev and Sergei Ivlev, or has the case taken a systemic character? C. C. " Everything is built differently from 2 to 3 years ago. Gasification is already interested in the heads of all VAZA projects, making their business assessments. As long as we don't have a full-fledged business that will pay off and bring profit, but we are already very close to it. R. A.-So, can we say when and how the gas Prior (and possibly other models) will go into production? The Priora CNG Schema. C. -No decision yet, no decision yet. The CNG Prior is likely not to go into the series because the profitable machine is not yet available, the forecast, which is given by our marketers according to the potential capacity of the market, investment costs do not cover. The car is too expensive, about 40 thousand rubles more expensive than usual. There is such a case: the price may be lower if the investment is "to unrake" in a large circulation of the car. You have to understand the life cycle of the model. If the Prior is two years of conveyor life, it is one if ten years is quite different, then the price will increase not so much and the machine will be sold in large volumes. Now, the work on Prioro-2 is underway, and all our work can be carried over there. In this case, the chance of the pipeline life of CNG is significantly increased. Perhaps we will introduce a simpler gas concept in the near future, on propane-butane. Such machines can be made by small batches, on an order, in SRBs. R. A.-And did not work on the conversion of French models, the same Largus? He will have a commercial version, for which the gas equipment is so requested! Largus S. C. -No, it's not our platform, we don't know it as well as we do. You can say that the R90 hasn't reached the R90 yet. I agree that the gas equipment would be very fit for a commercial van, and it is not excluded that such a project could be implemented within the same APF. We're thinking of a big-grained, conveyor production. R. A.-How do all these activities continue to be funded by the residual principle or the budget is stable? C. C. -The budget is stable with a residual principle (laughs). No, there's a reasonable amount of money to be allocated to this case. We have almost done all the preparatory work, this year we will finish calibrations of a dual-fuel powertrain. In the work plan for the next years all these projects are worth-and gas cars, hybrid vehicles, and electric vehicles. R. A.-What about hybrids at VAZ? C. C. -"Soft-stop hybrid" type "start-stop" we now have in the form of finished layout model, we are ready to show it at the conference. It was made in cooperation with Bosch. There are other options, our own development. In other hybrid areas, where the electric power train and the DSS are combined, the work is still at the beginning. R. A.-A new "grantee" motor with a Euro-5 piston group in Euro 5 will be able to fit in? C. C. -What do you mean, "you can"? We have almost all engines having versions of Euro-5! Everything we sell in Europe is certified according to this standard, this is 4x4, Priora and Kalina. We can move to production of Euro-5 and the Russian market at any time, if the lawmakers demand it. And at the end of this year, all VAZ products will comply with Euro 4 standards.