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Kalashnikov has made a laughable electric “super car” based upon a car symbolic of occupied east germany

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Kalashnikov has an electric car that uses the styling of a car symbolic of occupied East Germany.

The Trabant became a symbol of the technological and social backwardness of the East German state.

The new electric version has 220 kW, cruising range is 350 km and 6 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 km per hour.

The Trabant was made from 1957 to 1990 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. It is often seen as symbolic of the former East Germany and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in general. The Trabant had a hard plastic body mounted on a one-piece steel chassis.

Over 3 million were made. Older models have been sought by collectors in the United States due to their low cost and fewer restrictions on the importation of antique cars. The Trabant also gained a following among car tuning and rally racing enthusiasts.

69 thoughts on “Kalashnikov has made a laughable electric “super car” based upon a car symbolic of occupied east germany”

  1. But it doesn’t have capabilities comparable to the most advanced electric cars on the market. They give you the numbers right there in the article. 0-100 km per hour in 6 seconds, that’s not 0-100 miles per hour which is what the Teslas can do in that time. Having said that, I don’t think it looks that bad. At least from the front.

  3. I saw trabis in action when I visited East Berlin in ’86. I thought it was a lawnmower coming down the street. That was what it sounded like. Had like two cylinders in its two-stroke engine. The panels, hood, etc was made from this cheap plastic. I pushed down on a parked one and was afraid I’d dent it if I kept pushing. Then I saw a Buick from the US Embassy go down the street. By contrast it was behemoth. When I saw The Meg last week, the shark kinda reminded me of how it felt to see that bad boy going down Karl Marx Strasse. East Berlin was the only place in Germany I felt safe to cross the street w/o worrying, given how fast they drove their cars over even the cobblestone streets in West Berlin.

  4. I would not call an electric car with capabilities comparable to the most advanced electric cars in the market and a design with an appeal to collectors and the general population in the former eastern block laughable. Having said that I definitely don’t find this car look appealing.

  6. But it doesn’t have capabilities comparable to the most advanced electric cars on the market. They give you the numbers right there in the article. 0-100 km per hour in 6 seconds that’s not 0-100 miles per hour which is what the Teslas can do in that time.Having said that I don’t think it looks that bad. At least from the front.

  8. I saw trabis in action when I visited East Berlin in ’86.I thought it was a lawnmower coming down the street. That was what it sounded like. Had like two cylinders in its two-stroke engine. The panels hood etc was made from this cheap plastic. I pushed down on a parked one and was afraid I’d dent it if I kept pushing. Then I saw a Buick from the US Embassy go down the street. By contrast it was behemoth. When I saw The Meg last week the shark kinda reminded me of how it felt to see that bad boy going down Karl Marx Strasse.East Berlin was the only place in Germany I felt safe to cross the street w/o worrying given how fast they drove their cars over even the cobblestone streets in West Berlin.

  9. I would not call an electric car with capabilities comparable to the most advanced electric cars in the market and a design with an appeal to collectors and the general population in the former eastern block laughable. Having said that I definitely don’t find this car look appealing.

  11. I predicted like 20 years ago that once electric vehicles reaches a certain level of performance regarding battery capacity and price, there will be a renaissance in car design. Aerodynamics and weight savings will no longer be the highest priority and cars can start to look like whatever the designer feels like. There will be flexible vehicle platforms that can be adapted and fitted with any shell. Platforms will be bought by specialist car companies that turn them into specific vehicles, like kit-cars. We will see pink Cadillacs with rocket fins and T-Fords again etc. I can finally drive around in a battle tank replica on the streets.

  12. On August 23, 2018 the arms manufacturer Kalashnikov presented an electric car with exterior design closely based on that of the Izh 2125. The IZh 2125 “Kombi” (Russian: ИЖ-2125 Комби, short for “combination”) is a compact car produced by the Soviet car manufacturer IZh from 1973 to 1997. It was based on an Izhevsk-modified Moskvitch 412, with the first prototype released in 1972 as a small family car. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izh_2125

  13. I predicted like 20 years ago that once electric vehicles reaches a certain level of performance regarding battery capacity and price there will be a renaissance in car design.Aerodynamics and weight savings will no longer be the highest priority and cars can start to look like whatever the designer feels like. There will be flexible vehicle platforms that can be adapted and fitted with any shell. Platforms will be bought by specialist car companies that turn them into specific vehicles like kit-cars.We will see pink Cadillacs with rocket fins and T-Fords again etc.I can finally drive around in a battle tank replica on the streets.

  14. On August 23 2018 the arms manufacturer Kalashnikov presented an electric car with exterior design closely based on that of the Izh 2125. The IZh 2125 Kombi”” (Russian: ИЖ-2125 Комби”””” short for “”””combination””””) is a compact car produced by the Soviet car manufacturer IZh from 1973 to 1997. It was based on an Izhevsk-modified Moskvitch 412″””” with the first prototype released in 1972 as a small family car. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izh_2125″””””””

  15. That sounds like fun but I think future bureaucrats are going to be just as humorless as the current variety about what they let on the road. You will conform … or else! Local transportation might be a different story.

  19. Utter nonsense. Stupidly inefficient cars won’t be allowed. Cars’ shape will be further restricted because of stricter efficiency regulations.

  20. That sounds like fun but I think future bureaucrats are going to be just as humorless as the current variety about what they let on the road. You will conform … or else! Local transportation might be a different story.

  24. Utter nonsense. Stupidly inefficient cars won’t be allowed.Cars’ shape will be further restricted because of stricter efficiency regulations.

  25. LOL. No, it doesn’t… but then I owned a BMW 2002 at one point. These days, such a lump of soap looks kind of out-of-place. My brother, “the product designer” (true!) says that design’s aim is to speak the visual language of the times, and to adapt to its evolution year by year. This just looks like a 1960s James Bond 007 movie prop. From East Germany. Right? GoatGuy

  26. Ah… out comes the inner Marxist! “Stupidly inefficient cars won’t be allowed.” I’m chuckling, MZSO. That’s funny. I’m wedded to the idea that the most efficient form of social engineering comes from twiddling the knobs of financial factors. Make gasoline and diesel fuel so damned expensive that consumers themselves will demand efficient cars. Make diesel so expensive with extra tariffs that truckers (who end up doing 95% or more of roadway wear-and-tear damage) pay for roadway repairs. I like financial knob twiddling results. But I also like the kind of Wild West freedom that a non-Marxist socioeconomic system delivers. If YOU want to drive an egg-smooth 90 MPG electric car, and I want to drive a battle-scarred camo-painted 7 MPG HumVee, well … so long as I’m not actually stealing the fuel for it, but paying the egregious fuel taxes, who cares? My money, my choice. Because if you think too much on the Marxist theme, then it should be illegal to sell a bottle of wine for more than twice the production cost. There’d be no $150 (or $1500) bottles of champagne. Just bubbly fruitfly water. You’d also not be able to extravagantly invest in ultra-fine clothing, or bespoke cliimber’s shoes. Or save up to buy a really special custom-designed house. Because they wouldn’t be allowed. Proletariat vs. bourgeoisie. Hanging all the rich people from lampposts hardly improves the lives of the Little Man. Just saying. Let capitalism do its job. And competently “turn the knobs” of the flow of capital. GoatGuy

  27. LOL. No it doesn’t… but then I owned a BMW 2002 at one point. These days such a lump of soap looks kind of out-of-place. My brother the product designer”” (true!) says that design’s aim is to speak the visual language of the times”””” and to adapt to its evolution year by year.This just looks like a 1960s James Bond 007 movie prop. From East Germany.Right?GoatGuy”””

  28. Ah… out comes the inner Marxist! Stupidly inefficient cars won’t be allowed.”” I’m chuckling”” MZSO. That’s funny. I’m wedded to the idea that the most efficient form of social engineering comes from twiddling the knobs of financial factors. Make gasoline and diesel fuel so damned expensive that consumers themselves will demand efficient cars. Make diesel so expensive with extra tariffs that truckers (who end up doing 95{22800fc54956079738b58e74e4dcd846757aa319aad70fcf90c97a58f3119a12} or more of roadway wear-and-tear damage) pay for roadway repairs. I like financial knob twiddling results. But I also like the kind of Wild West freedom that a non-Marxist socioeconomic system delivers. If YOU want to drive an egg-smooth 90 MPG electric car and I want to drive a battle-scarred camo-painted 7 MPG HumVee well … so long as I’m not actually stealing the fuel for it but paying the egregious fuel taxes who cares? My money my choice. Because if you think too much on the Marxist theme then it should be illegal to sell a bottle of wine for more than twice the production cost. There’d be no $150 (or $1500) bottles of champagne. Just bubbly fruitfly water. You’d also not be able to extravagantly invest in ultra-fine clothing”” or bespoke cliimber’s shoes. Or save up to buy a really special custom-designed house. Because they wouldn’t be allowed. Proletariat vs. bourgeoisie. Hanging all the rich people from lampposts hardly improves the lives of the Little Man. Just saying.Let capitalism do its job.And competently “”””turn the knobs”””” of the flow of capital.GoatGuy”””

  32. Self-driving cars might also significantly change things. If people don’t own their own cars, fleet operators might use different types of cars for different use cases. Many cars might be designed to simply haul people and groceries around at low speeds in neighborhoods without getting on the freeway. Aerodynamics mean a lot less at low speeds. Car makers would also have a lot more options for meeting efficiency standards, because fleet operators could modify the energy performance of their cars in real time by tweaking their routing, throttling speeds by a few mph, or road training. I’m also hoping this leads to a lot more diversity in car design.

  37. Self-driving cars might also significantly change things. If people don’t own their own cars fleet operators might use different types of cars for different use cases. Many cars might be designed to simply haul people and groceries around at low speeds in neighborhoods without getting on the freeway. Aerodynamics mean a lot less at low speeds. Car makers would also have a lot more options for meeting efficiency standards because fleet operators could modify the energy performance of their cars in real time by tweaking their routing throttling speeds by a few mph or road training. I’m also hoping this leads to a lot more diversity in car design.

  43. Not necessarily fake, but the internet is full of crap about how the Russians have invented this or that wonderful, amazing thing that nobody else can do and then we discover they’re one-offs because the Russians are broke (again) and can’t build more than one. Wonder weapons, space wizardry and a bunch of other “Gee, Whiz” stuff that turns out to be fraud if not outright fake.

  44. Not necessarily fake but the internet is full of crap about how the Russians have invented this or that wonderful amazing thing that nobody else can do and then we discover they’re one-offs because the Russians are broke (again) and can’t build more than one. Wonder weapons space wizardry and a bunch of other Gee”” Whiz”” stuff that turns out to be fraud if not outright fake.”””

  45. I have to say… that is one of the clunkiest looking cars that I’ve seen in recent memory. Somehow, the sky blue just adds to the comedy. Yet, “beauty is relative”. Let’s not forget that The French bought a nearly endless number of French-made cars that had all the curb appeal of a bar of soap. And then there was The Yugo. There you go. An enclosed golf cart with a snow-blower engine. Moreover, when I look back of some of BMW’s earlier creations, they too are hideously clunky. The “2002” for instance is a box with exactly the same rainwater sluicing channels as this baby blue turnip. One thing about pigs with lipstick: they’re big enough to support a pretty heavy battery. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if it actually had 3,000 lbs of fine Soviet Era nickel-cadmium cells in it. LOL. Hey, you can charge NiCad fast, since it has a negative enthalpy curve in charging (they actually cool down, until ohmic heating overcomes the negative enthalpy). Well… WTG, ex-Soviet Union. Stick to rockets, to nefariously delivered arms-of-war, secret squirrel spy networks and eye-patch wearing butchers. Or, if you actually can find a willing and receptive market in say … Poland, Burkina Faso and um… Kazakhstan, well … make ’em and sell ’em. Just saying. Design is something BEST COPIED from the world’s ample supply of extant models. GoatGuy

  46. I have to say… that is one of the clunkiest looking cars that I’ve seen in recent memory. Somehow the sky blue just adds to the comedy. Yet beauty is relative””. Let’s not forget that The French bought a nearly endless number of French-made cars that had all the curb appeal of a bar of soap. And then there was The Yugo. There you go. An enclosed golf cart with a snow-blower engine. Moreover”” when I look back of some of BMW’s earlier creations”” they too are hideously clunky. The “”””2002″””” for instance is a box with exactly the same rainwater sluicing channels as this baby blue turnip.One thing about pigs with lipstick: they’re big enough to support a pretty heavy battery. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if it actually had 3″”000 lbs of fine Soviet Era nickel-cadmium cells in it. LOL. Hey you can charge NiCad fast since it has a negative enthalpy curve in charging (they actually cool down until ohmic heating overcomes the negative enthalpy). Well… WTG ex-Soviet Union. Stick to rockets to nefariously delivered arms-of-war secret squirrel spy networks and eye-patch wearing butchers. Or if you actually can find a willing and receptive market in say … Poland Burkina Faso and um… Kazakhstan”” well … make ’em and sell ’em. Just saying.Design is something BEST COPIED from the world’s ample supply of extant models. GoatGuy”””””””

  47. Not necessarily fake, but the internet is full of crap about how the Russians have invented this or that wonderful, amazing thing that nobody else can do and then we discover they’re one-offs because the Russians are broke (again) and can’t build more than one. Wonder weapons, space wizardry and a bunch of other “Gee, Whiz” stuff that turns out to be fraud if not outright fake.

  54. Self-driving cars might also significantly change things. If people don’t own their own cars, fleet operators might use different types of cars for different use cases. Many cars might be designed to simply haul people and groceries around at low speeds in neighborhoods without getting on the freeway. Aerodynamics mean a lot less at low speeds. Car makers would also have a lot more options for meeting efficiency standards, because fleet operators could modify the energy performance of their cars in real time by tweaking their routing, throttling speeds by a few mph, or road training.

    I’m also hoping this leads to a lot more diversity in car design.

  55. LOL. No, it doesn’t… but then I owned a BMW 2002 at one point. These days, such a lump of soap looks kind of out-of-place. My brother, “the product designer” (true!) says that design’s aim is to speak the visual language of the times, and to adapt to its evolution year by year.

    This just looks like a 1960s James Bond 007 movie prop. From East Germany.
    Right?

    GoatGuy

  56. Ah… out comes the inner Marxist! “Stupidly inefficient cars won’t be allowed.” I’m chuckling, MZSO. That’s funny.

    I’m wedded to the idea that the most efficient form of social engineering comes from twiddling the knobs of financial factors. Make gasoline and diesel fuel so damned expensive that consumers themselves will demand efficient cars. Make diesel so expensive with extra tariffs that truckers (who end up doing 95% or more of roadway wear-and-tear damage) pay for roadway repairs. I like financial knob twiddling results.

    But I also like the kind of Wild West freedom that a non-Marxist socioeconomic system delivers. If YOU want to drive an egg-smooth 90 MPG electric car, and I want to drive a battle-scarred camo-painted 7 MPG HumVee, well … so long as I’m not actually stealing the fuel for it, but paying the egregious fuel taxes, who cares? My money, my choice.

    Because if you think too much on the Marxist theme, then it should be illegal to sell a bottle of wine for more than twice the production cost. There’d be no $150 (or $1500) bottles of champagne. Just bubbly fruitfly water. You’d also not be able to extravagantly invest in ultra-fine clothing, or bespoke cliimber’s shoes. Or save up to buy a really special custom-designed house. Because they wouldn’t be allowed. Proletariat vs. bourgeoisie. Hanging all the rich people from lampposts hardly improves the lives of the Little Man.

    Just saying.
    Let capitalism do its job.
    And competently “turn the knobs” of the flow of capital.

    GoatGuy

  57. That sounds like fun but I think future bureaucrats are going to be just as humorless as the current variety about what they let on the road. You will conform … or else! Local transportation might be a different story.

  61. Utter nonsense. Stupidly inefficient cars won’t be allowed.

    Cars’ shape will be further restricted because of stricter efficiency regulations.

  62. I predicted like 20 years ago that once electric vehicles reaches a certain level of performance regarding battery capacity and price, there will be a renaissance in car design.
    Aerodynamics and weight savings will no longer be the highest priority and cars can start to look like whatever the designer feels like. There will be flexible vehicle platforms that can be adapted and fitted with any shell. Platforms will be bought by specialist car companies that turn them into specific vehicles, like kit-cars.

    We will see pink Cadillacs with rocket fins and T-Fords again etc.
    I can finally drive around in a battle tank replica on the streets.

  63. On August 23, 2018 the arms manufacturer Kalashnikov presented an electric car with exterior design closely based on that of the Izh 2125. The IZh 2125 “Kombi” (Russian: ИЖ-2125 Комби, short for “combination”) is a compact car produced by the Soviet car manufacturer IZh from 1973 to 1997. It was based on an Izhevsk-modified Moskvitch 412, with the first prototype released in 1972 as a small family car. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izh_2125

  64. But it doesn’t have capabilities comparable to the most advanced electric cars on the market. They give you the numbers right there in the article. 0-100 km per hour in 6 seconds, that’s not 0-100 miles per hour which is what the Teslas can do in that time.

    Having said that, I don’t think it looks that bad. At least from the front.

  66. I saw trabis in action when I visited East Berlin in ’86.

    I thought it was a lawnmower coming down the street. That was what it sounded like. Had like two cylinders in its two-stroke engine. The panels, hood, etc was made from this cheap plastic. I pushed down on a parked one and was afraid I’d dent it if I kept pushing.

    Then I saw a Buick from the US Embassy go down the street. By contrast it was behemoth. When I saw The Meg last week, the shark kinda reminded me of how it felt to see that bad boy going down Karl Marx Strasse.

    East Berlin was the only place in Germany I felt safe to cross the street w/o worrying, given how fast they drove their cars over even the cobblestone streets in West Berlin.

  67. I would not call an electric car with capabilities comparable to the most advanced electric cars in the market and a design with an appeal to collectors and the general population in the former eastern block laughable. Having said that I definitely don’t find this car look appealing.

  69. I have to say… that is one of the clunkiest looking cars that I’ve seen in recent memory. Somehow, the sky blue just adds to the comedy. Yet, “beauty is relative”. Let’s not forget that The French bought a nearly endless number of French-made cars that had all the curb appeal of a bar of soap. And then there was The Yugo. There you go. An enclosed golf cart with a snow-blower engine. Moreover, when I look back of some of BMW’s earlier creations, they too are hideously clunky. The “2002” for instance is a box with exactly the same rainwater sluicing channels as this baby blue turnip.

    One thing about pigs with lipstick: they’re big enough to support a pretty heavy battery. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if it actually had 3,000 lbs of fine Soviet Era nickel-cadmium cells in it. LOL. Hey, you can charge NiCad fast, since it has a negative enthalpy curve in charging (they actually cool down, until ohmic heating overcomes the negative enthalpy).

    Well… WTG, ex-Soviet Union. Stick to rockets, to nefariously delivered arms-of-war, secret squirrel spy networks and eye-patch wearing butchers. Or, if you actually can find a willing and receptive market in say … Poland, Burkina Faso and um… Kazakhstan, well … make ’em and sell ’em.

    Just saying.
    Design is something BEST COPIED from the world’s ample supply of extant models.

    GoatGuy

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