Russia’s Molnija EV: A Hundred Kilometers of Range, With a Tailwind
After years of promises, Russia has unveiled its long-awaited electric car, the Molnija—named for lightning, but flashing more brightly on the electric bill than on the open road. Its official range? A staggering 100 kilometers. Yes, one hundred. Not a thousand, not even 250. Just a neat, round hundred, as if someone in the ministry misplaced a zero in Excel.
Proud officials boast that 70 percent of the components are domestically sourced. That likely covers the door handle, a wiper blade and perhaps the project manager’s signature under the hood. The remaining 30 percent, one imagines, trickle in quietly from countries where things are actually manufactured, ensuring the car at least moves under its own power.
And the competition? Tesla’s Model 3, Zeekr’s 007 and BYD’s Han—at least according to the official line. The comparison is about as apt as setting a potato peeler against a samurai sword. Yes, both cut, but the experience is worlds apart. Nevertheless, the Molnija has already been nominated for Russia’s top industrial design award, a reminder that patriotism often trumps perspective.
Production is set for Moscow’s Moskvich plant, a facility that has been more ghost than factory in recent years, cobbling together Chinese kits while promising to “soon rival Tesla.” Now, at least, it will have something tangible rolling off the line—dozens of units, perhaps—to freshen up government motor pools and lend taxi companies a new talking point.
Exports are on the table as well. Where to? That’s the real puzzle. North Korea seems a plausible candidate, where a 100-kilometer range could be considered a luxury rather than a liability.
In the end, the Molnija feels less like an EV and more like a mobile extension cord, able to drive only as long as there’s an obliging socket in someone’s garage. Still, it does prove that Russia’s auto industry can produce something new—even if that “something” has all the spark of a dying flashlight on a November night.
