Normally, when you think of Kalashnikov, you likely think about guns, especially the famous AK-47 assault rifle that perhaps you once bought as a gift for your grandma. The company now has its gunsights aimed at Tesla, which they’re targeting with their new electric car prototype, the CV-1. Hilariously and delightfully, the car appears to have the body of a 1970s Moskovitch.
The Kalashnikov CV-1 seems to have a modern electric drivetrain, with a 90 kWh battery that gives a respectable 349km range, and can go from 0 to 62 MPH in six seconds. The motor appears to make 295 horsepower, and Kalashnikov claims they have
“a revolutionary inverter, with dimensions of 50x50x100 cm and a mass of 50 kg, and allows the development of capacities up to 1.2 MW of payload.”
The fun part, though, is that the car is built with the body of a pre-1982 IZh 2125, also known as the Moskovitch 1500 Kombi. This car was actually built by Kalashnikov under licence decades ago, which may explain why it was chosen.
The Kombi has a great blended hatchback/wagon design, and I’ve always thought of it as one of the best-looking and most useful of the Soviet=era cars. In transforming it into the CV-1, the whole front fascia has been changed, with six small rectangular LED lights replacing the conventional lighting of the original car, set into a three-section, full-width grille.
The robin’s-egg blue car appears to be lowered, and rides on striking white wheels, and all extraneous chrome and trim has been removed, leaving a sleek restomod-looking vehicle.
I kind of love it.
It’s fun to compare details like the door handles; Kalashnikov just seems to have kept the originals, a far cry from the aero-sculpted flush handles of a Tesla.
Kalashnikov spokesperson Sofia Ivanova talked to the Russian news outlet RBC about their direct Tesla comparisons:
“We are talking about competing precisely with Tesla, because at present it is a successful project in the field of electric vehicles. We expect to at least not give in to him.”
Yeah, good! Don’t give in! This thing looks to be straight out of the movie Gattica, which was full of electrified vintage cars. That’s a future I’d like to live in, at least visually.
I may just have to take myself off the Model 3 waiting list for this one. Even though I’m pretty sceptical any production model will look anything like this. But I’m a dreamer.