Russia Gets Its First Homegrown Hybrid, Yo

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: January 2nd, 2011

Yo, wazzup?`Want to get your hands on Russia’s first homegrown hybrid, yo? All you need to do is get yo sorry azz over to Moscow, dat Russia for you, yo. According to Itar-Tass, the Russian yo-Auto company shows their “yo” hybrid at the yo-mobile pavilion in downtown Moscow from January 2 through 11. Yo, dat’s right.

At the yo-mobile pavilion, you will find a yo-microvan, a yo-cross coupe, and a yo-minitruck, All are “environment-friendly and energy-saving cars for everyday use in urban conditions powered both by gasoline and liquefied gas,” as Itar-Tass promises.

russia gets its first homegrown hybrid yo

Of course, Itar-Tass doesn’t live under a rock and has heard of the plug-in craze. They asked why yo doesn’t “follow the lead of world car manufacturers.” Yo, did they get an earful:

Alexander Sinkevich, the technical director of the yo-Auto company, said that his company is dead-set “against electricity-powered cars. If the world motor fleet is replaced with electrical cars, global electricity consumption will go up four-fold, but there are shortages of electricity supplies already now. The future belongs to hybrid cars. Hybrid power units of such cars generate electricity from natural gas, which weighs less, and it take less time to charge the car. Moreover, hybrid cars have a longer fuel distance than electric cars.”

Yo, dat’s right.

Yo-mobiles promise a (certainly non-EPA) 67 mpg rating, and come without range anxiety: 400 km or 250 miles on a single tank! All yo-mobiles are equipped with the full complement of electronics, full GPS GLONASS navigation devices, A/C, a telephone with a keyboard (listen up, LaHood, yo!) Internet and multimedia.

A plant is being built near St. Petersburg that will crank-out 10,000 yo-mobiles a year, yo.

And in case yo are wondering where the name comes from: yo-Auto is owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of the New Jersey Nets. Yo yo yo foos it be da hippest thang to come out of Russia, yo.

#BertelSchmitt #Hybrid #Russia #Yo

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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Redapple2 Love the wheels
Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Off-road fluff on vehicles that should not be off road needs to die.
Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Saw this posted on social media; “Just bought a 2023 Tundra with the 14" screen. Let my son borrow it for the afternoon, he connected his phone to listen to his iTunes.The next day my insurance company raised my rates and added my son to my policy. The email said that a private company showed that my son drove the vehicle. He already had his own vehicle that he was insuring.My insurance company demanded he give all his insurance info and some private info for proof. He declined for privacy reasons and my insurance cancelled my policy.These new vehicles with their tech are on condition that we give up our privacy to enter their world. It's not worth it people.”