Kalashnikov ventures into electric car production

Concern Kalashnikov, maker of the AK-47 assault rifle, is the latest entry into the crowded electric-vehicle race that has drawn a range of tech entrepreneurs, makers of vacuum cleaners as well as the world’s biggest car companies.

The most recent Tesla fighter, presented in baby-blue and dubbed the CV-1, comes with a retro design that echoes the Soviet Union’s Izh-Kombi, a car popular in the 1970s. Kalashnikov showed off the car, with a broad front grille and a 350 kilometre driving range, at an arms fair in Moscow last week, the company said on its Facebook page.

The CV-1 will help Kalashnikov enter the ranks of electric-car producers like Tesla and become a competitor, the manufacturer told news agency RIA Novosti.

Kalashnikov has been trying to expand its brand, adding shops to sell its clothing line and other civilian accessories.

With electric cars proliferating, albeit still from a low base, new competitors are vying to enter a sector dominated by long-standing manufacturers such as Volkswagen and General Motors.

Many produce a prototype but struggle to overcome funding constraints and managing a highly complex supply chain and production process to profitably make cars.

Among the more advanced new hopefuls is China’s NIO, filing for a potential $1.8 billion listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Others, such as Sony, have hinted at getting into “moving objects” and Dyson, the vacuum cleaner maker, surprised everyone nearly a year ago when it unveiled plans to build an electric car by 2020, putting £1bn (Dh4.7bn) behind the effort.

Kalashnikov did not provide details about production or sales plans for its vehicle.