Russia’s Tesla Killer? Oh, Absolutely – Right After the Flying Lada!

One might assume that when the flagship of Russia’s defense industry sets its sights on developing an electric SUV, the result would be something straight out of Back to the Future. But no. Instead, what we have here is a classic Russian tech tragicomedy – a grandiose project launched with much fanfare, only to be quietly stamped with the ever-familiar "Temporarily Suspended" label. Which, in reality, translates to never happening, ever.

E-Neva was supposed to be "Russia’s answer to Tesla." You know, much like the Lada Kalina was supposed to be Russia’s answer to the Volkswagen Golf. In both cases, the answer has been nothing but deafening silence. The project kicked off with grand promises – a 435-horsepower electric SUV that could rocket from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.7 seconds, powered by a battery allegedly capable of taking you from one oil field to another without the need for a recharge. All of which sounds fantastic… until you realize the car itself was about as likely to materialize as the return of McDonald’s to Russia.

Production was supposed to take place at Toyota’s former factory in St. Petersburg, with a projected output of 100,000 cars per year. But then, predictably, the brutal reality set in – there simply wasn’t any money. The government refused to fund it, and Almaz-Antey, whose primary focus at the moment is missiles rather than Musk, decided they had more pressing matters to attend to than playing at being EV pioneers.

And so, here we are – yet another revolutionary innovation reduced to a stack of blueprints and a pile of wasted rubles. The official reason? "Now is not the right time." Which, given the state of Russia’s car industry – plagued by a critical lack of components and global isolation – is hardly surprising.

Would E-Neva have been a Tesla killer? The odds were about as good as Moskvich becoming a globally desirable luxury brand.