News of the automotive industry

Scouts of the Eastern Military District tested the Tiger-M armored vehicles that entered service at the training ground in the Amur region in conditions of severe frosts, the press service of the district reported on Friday.

The British company Supacat has completed the development of a set of conversion of Jackal 1 diesel armored vehicles into hybrid ones without loss of driving characteristics. According to Jane's, the company also prepared the first such armored vehicle for the installation of the kit and testing. All work was completed in mid-December last year, but the company announced this only now.

The crisis year 2020 for the whole country paradoxically turned out to be very successful for the production of domestic tractors and combines. Sales of agricultural machinery within the country and export of agricultural machinery have also increased sharply. What is the reason for such achievements of the whole industry and whether it will be possible to repeat this success in 2021?

Russian navy sailors received "coastal minesweepers". A fundamental decision was made to equip the engineering regiments of the Navy with combat robots-sappers "Uran-6". They can be used with maximum safety for the personnel to clear explosive hazards from the coast and the hinterland.

On January 15, 2021, it was reported that on December 23, 2020, the General Directorate of Armaments (Direction Générale de l'Armement - DGA) of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces issued a contract to a consortium of French companies Nexter Systems and Texelis for the supply of the first 364 serial Serval multi-purpose armored vehicles with a 4x4 wheel formula, also designated VBMR Leger (Véhicule blindé multi-rôles) to the French army.

The Russian military for the first time reported on the conduct of network-centric exercises, during which self-propelled artillery installations (ACS) "Msta" were used, equipped with the equipment of a unified control system, RIA Novosti reports.

After that, several more bodies were made to work out the technological process and comply with quality standards. Production of Auruses in Yelabuga will take place on a full cycle: here also prepare stamping production, assembly of engines and, of course, painting of bodies.

More than half of all cars sold in Norway in 2020 were exclusively electric-powered. These are the data of the local Norwegian specialized agency. Pure electric vehicles alone accounted for as much as 54% of all new car sales, and if cars with hybrid powerplants were taken into account, the figure would be even higher.

The Vietnamese army is practicing the use of old Soviet BM-14 multiple launch rocket systems for attacks on naval targets. In the text commenting on the video of live firing posted on the Network, it is noted that these installations do not have the necessary range and accuracy to hit enemy ships, but they can successfully cope with lightly armored amphibians approaching the shore.

The owner of the Tesla Model 3 car conducted an interesting experiment — drove the route from San Francisco to Los Angeles and back on autopilot. In the cities, the car moved under the control of the beta version of the Full Self-Driving (FSD) function, and on the highway it worked in Autopilot (AP) mode. For more than 12 hours of driving, the driver took control for only five minutes.

Ust-Katavsky Car Building Plant (part of Roscosmos) intends to assemble an unmanned tram in 2022, then its tests will follow. This was announced on Monday, January 4, by the general Director of the company Roman Novikov.

Volkswagen Group has presented a prototype of a robotic car charging system. It consists of battery packs on wheels and a robot with a manipulator that takes them around the parking lot and connects their charging cables to electric vehicles that need charging.

The Russian military began to receive the engineering system of remote mining (isdm) "Agriculture", intended for installation by means of programmable ammunition of minefields, reports "rostec".

Rostec State Corporation has started supplying the troops with the latest mine-barrage system "Agriculture", which sets minefields using multiple launch rocket systems.

On December 21, 2020, Hungarian Deputy defense Minister Gaspar Marot announced that more than 300 MRAP-class Ejder Yalçın armored vehicles with a 4x4 wheel formula developed and manufactured by the Turkish company Nurol Makina will be purchased for the Hungarian armed forces. At the same time, the Assembly of most of the cars (which will receive the Hungarian designation Gidran in honor of the breed of Hungarian racehorses) will be carried out in Hungary at a joint venture with the German group Rheinmetall.

The first self-driving cars of Sber Automotive Technologies went to the streets of Moscow for testing in the conditions of the winter metropolis: the drones will be tested by high humidity, negative temperature, poor visibility and heavy road conditions.

Foreign media actively promote the story about the fact that "Russian troops were sent to pacify the rebellion in one of the countries of Africa." As it turned out in the last few hours, several hundred Russian military instructors were actually sent to the Central African Republic (CAR). What is happening in this state and how can Russia help the local government?

the latest russian anti-aircraft missile and gun system "pantsir-sm" has radically improved capabilities to combat a variety of air targets.

Next year, four new Strela vehicles will be developed for the Russian military. The corresponding contract was signed by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

according to the general director of the "military-industrial company" alexander krasovitsky, whose words are quoted by the tc "zvezda", it is planned to create multi-purpose armored and unarmored vehicles, as well as platforms for the installation of special equipment on their base.

The rapidly growing family of electric transport modules has been supplemented by an autonomous capsule-robotaxi Zoox from Amazon Zoox. Zoox is a former American startup engaged in the development of self-driving cars, it was acquired by Amazon earlier this year.