Kalashnikov made a car?
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Sorry folks but I’m an old school car freak and that thing looks like a Lada from the mid '80’s Soviet Union, slab sided and butt-ugly. I don’t like Elon Musk but I’ll give him credit for a sense of style. His cars look good, too bad he’s a self-serving idiot.
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If they’ve managed to incorporate traditional Kalashnikov virtues in areas of cost, durability, ease of use; and wide availability of both licensed and cloned parts for the thing, it can be as ugly as it wants and Musk should still be nervous.
If(as seems somewhat more likely) the batteries and perhaps a few other fancy bits of an electronic drivetrain impose a stiff BoM cost on everyone; then they’ll really need to emphasize retro-aesthetic nationalism to move any.
(edit: Also, given relative population sizes and trends toward environmentally problematic urbanization, the real news won’t be Kalashnikov’s electric car; but when the Chinese start stamping out their ‘Type 56’ take on the concept.)
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Those were based on Fiat 124s from 1966-74.
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Apparently it is not an uncommon Design aesthetic among Izh customisers:
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This looks like an EV that would actually cater to my needs.
Let’s hope the manufacturing quality is better than on my uncle’s Moskvitch.
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You are entitled to your completely wrong opinion… 
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Anyone want to calculate the ground pressure on that thing? It’s supposed to weigh about 4,500kg, IIRC.
I suspect that it would sink to its hips if it ever walked onto soft ground.
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Composite headlights and tail-lights are a relatively recent development. Some of the retro-inspired cars are doing individual lights for individual purposes, while others are just decorating big multi-purpose, multi-directional lights with LED’s.
The latter are doing it wrong, is what I say.
I mean, the decorated lights look nice and all, but it’s still wrong.
That’s the stuff…
… almost there.
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Yeah, what’s with the little trunky bit.
I thought it was a wagon.
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Electro-Lada!
(Briefly popular in Quebec before the claimed “thicker steel” succumbed to Quebec’s winter salt.)
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Ah, you had 20 seconds to comply…
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I was thinking with the top so large, it should be easy to tip over. It reminds me of Stewie from Family Guy…
Almost. They just gotta remove the pilot and make it cranky. At least they’ve mastered the inability to use stairs.
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In stark contrast, check out this beauty:
Saaaweeeeeet.
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Now with, I think, dry-ice!
I get the joke, but there’s no way on earth that thing meets modern US safety standards. Look at the size of the A and C pillars on every car out there, and compare it to this thing, and there’s just no way.
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