The new Russian electric car Zetta, which is being developed in Tolyatti, will still appear on the market. ZETTA LLC, which is engaged in a promising project, has denied its closure.
"Первый технический" has already reported on this interesting domestic development. The Zetta startup appeared in the public field in 2018, and it was planned that it would be the most affordable electric car in Russia for its category. At prices from 540 thousand rubles, buyers wanted to sell domestic two-seater front-wheel drive electric cars 3 meters long with an electric motor. However, for a number of reasons, even small-scale production did not begin.
By the beginning of 2024, the Russian car market had not yet seen Zetta electric cars. In early April, the Avtobroker Klub automobile magazine, citing its sources, reported on the complete ruin of the startup and the sale of its property. According to the auto magazine, furniture and ATVs were planned to be produced at the former electric vehicle production facility.
Officially, ZETTA did not deny this information at the time. However, now "Avtobroker Klub" has received an official letter signed by the company's CEO, Avgust Lee. The letter states that the project is not being closed, but continues to exist. The information about the sale of equipment, which the magazine wrote about, relying on its sources, is not reliable. The building in which Zetta's production was located never belonged to the company, but was leased. As for the work on the electric car, the processes are now being reorganized, production and replacement of the component base are underway.
However, according to the Avtobroker Klub, the letter did not provide any clarification regarding the criminal case of fraud, which was initiated in mid-May after a prosecutor's check. The prosecutor's office of the Central District of the city of Tolyatti analyzed the implementation of the manufacturer's agreements with the Ministry of Industry and Trade regarding subsidies, and found violations by ZETTA.
It was established that in the period from December 2017 to December 2019, subsidy funds were received from the federal budget to the settlement account of ZETTA LLC to compensate for part of the costs of conducting research and development work in priority areas of civil industry in the total amount of over 284 million rubles. During the prosecutor's check, it was established that the agreements concluded by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia with ZETTA LLC were not executed within the established time frame. The volume of work performed ranges from 21% to 47%.
As a result of the audit, the investigative authorities initiated a criminal case under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud on an especially large scale") on the fact of embezzlement of budget funds in the amount of over 1 million rubles. The investigation is under the control of the prosecutor's office of the Central District.
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