Russian Billionaire Ventures Into Hybrid Cars

By
• NADIA POPOVA

MOSCOW—As if trying to turn around the New Jersey Nets basketball team weren't enough, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is now taking on another seemingly impossible task: building a $10,000 hybrid car with international appeal—in Russia.

While the world's major auto makers have spent years and billions of dollars on hybrids and electric cars, Mr. Prokhorov is spending €150 million ($198.4 million) to combine a gasoline engine and an electric motor inside a noisy package resembling a large, clunky toy car. Nearly all the components will be from Russia or the former Soviet Union, Mr. Prokhorov said Monday at the unveiling of the car's prototype in Moscow.

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Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov sits in a Sport Coupe variant of the ë-mobile hybrid cars during the vehicle's presentation in Moscow.

Even the name of the car, the ë-mobile, is off the beaten track. It incorporates a Cyrillic letter with no English equivalent. Pronounced "yo," it suggests something obscene to the Russian ear. A spokesman said, "We have no problems with that—everyone interprets it as he pleases."

Mr. Prokhorov said he intends to "break the stereotype saying Russia can't produce good cars," even though an executive needed three attempts to successfully start the prototype car with a mobile phone using a remote-start feature.

Mr. Prokhorov, Russia's second-richest man according to Forbes, bought 80% of the New Jersey Nets and a 45% stake in the basketball team's soon-to-be-built arena in Brooklyn, N.Y., for $200 million in 2009. Mr. Prokhorov holds large stakes in Russian aluminum producer United Co. Rusal PLC and gold producer OAO Polyus Gold .

Mr. Prokhorov's hope is that by 2012 Russia will produce 10,000 cars in the "yo" series, a relatively small amount equal to about 0.5% of Russia's 2010 new car sales. The ë-mobile business, a joint venture between Mr. Prokhorov's Onexim holding company and St. Petersburg truck producer Yarovit, seeks to break even three years after the launch of production.

Beyond Russia, the venture will seek to sell the car in Europe and already has its eyes on the necessary European Union regulations the company will have to comply with. It may also produce cars in Europe, according to the venture's chief executive Andrei Biryukov.

For all its novelty, however, the ë-mobile will only reach speeds of 130 kilometers an hour (81 miles an hour), limiting its appeal for some drivers. Fuel efficiency is aimed at 3.5 liters per 100 kilometers, or 67 miles per gallon. That tops the 51 mpg city-mileage estimate of the Toyota Prius V hybrid.