OREANDA-NEWS. The first mass-produced electric car may appear in the Russian Federation this year, said the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, TASS writes.

“We assume that the first mass-produced electric car will appear in Russia before the end of the year,” the press service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade quotes the minister as saying.

Earlier this year, it became known that the Ministry of Industry and Trade received two applications from companies wishing to produce electric cars in Russia. Instead of large foreign concerns with the necessary competencies, two unknown firms volunteered to make high-tech cars.

It was reported that the Motorinvest plant in the Lipetsk region could start producing Chinese electric cars from Sokon. The second company, Electric Vehicles Manufacturing Rus, talked about plans to produce the first electric cargo vehicle based on UAZ Profi as part of a government SPIC.

Speaking about other Russian projects, serial production of the Zetta model, which took 300 million rubles of budget money, has not been established. Previously, experts told Gazeta.Ru that the likelihood of seeing the mass production of this machine is minimal. Another project, Kama, a start-up for the production of electric vehicles, intends to assemble more than 450,000 cars annually by 2030, as well as set up production in Hungary.