Russian "Loaf" Cars to Become Electric Vehicles - How the Soviet Design is Being Revived

The "Crimean Tesla" based on UAZ-450 is expected to cost around two million rubles, according to some reports

The Crimean scientific and production enterprise "Elkafa" has received certificates for components that will help revive the concept of a Soviet electric vehicle based on the UAZ-450 - "Loaf". These include a traction electric motor from the Voronezh plant, lithium-ion traction batteries from the Lipetsk region, and a battery charge controller from the Skolkovo Innovation Center.

This is what the Soviet "Electro-Loaf" looked like, which could travel up to 50 km in the city without recharging. It never went into mass production: in the eighties, the Soviet automotive industry was no longer concerned with producing "cars of the future"
Image source "High Voltage"

The Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant is helping to implement the project, which has been developing the first Soviet electric vehicle for more than twenty years since 1959. The idea was initially an initiative of enthusiastic inventors from among the plant's employees, and later became an official task from the Ministry of Automotive Industry. In the late seventies, massive traction lead-acid batteries were integrated into the car, and a fully discharged car could be charged up to 70% in one hour. However, the "Electro-Loaf" never became a production car.

The revival of the project became known in the summer of 2023. Then, NPP "Elkafa" from Simferopol, which develops sets of components for converting conventional cars into electric ones, announced that it had begun the first tests of the new "Electro-Loaf".

Its electric motor has a power of 104 hp, while the declared range on a single battery charge is about 180 km at a speed of up to 80 km/h.

It takes 4 hours for the car to charge from a 380 V network.

In addition to further improving these parameters, the developers need to resolve the issue of localization: so far, the car consists of only 80% domestic components.

Nevertheless, the components have been certified, and the "Electro-Loaf" is now awaiting final road tests - which are scheduled to be completed at the beginning of this year. After that, the kit that will turn the UAZ-450 into an electric vehicle will be legally installed on cars and such cars will be registered with the traffic police.

The cost of the "Crimean Tesla" is currently estimated at around two million rubles, according to various sources.