Automobile. The Lada Kalina interested Fiat, Peugeot, Renault, Nissan, Porsche... and the mafia

It's the late 1980s. Things are going well for the Russian manufacturer Lada, with the Niva continuing to sell all over the world and the Samara doing well in Europe, particularly in France.

But in Togliatti they are aware that the future lies in a faster renewal of models and a smaller car, capable of attracting fans of the Peugeot 205, Opel Corsa or Volkswagen Polo in Russia and Europe.

At Avtovaz (the Volga plant that produces Ladas), the assembly lines are already running at full capacity. Production is therefore scheduled to move to Lelabuga, in the neighboring Republic of Tatarstan, at the ElAZ tractor plant.

Announced capacity: more than 900,000 units per year! An excessive ambition for the means of the Soviet automobile industry at the time. (Lada then produced around 660,000 cars per year, for the entire rest of the range).

To achieve this rather optimistic gamble, Lada will approach an old acquaintance, the Italian giant Fiat. The two manufacturers know each other very well; it was Fiat that helped the USSR create Avtovaz by supplying, turnkey, a gigantic factory in Togliatti, on the banks of the Volga, but also a model, the Fiat 124, which will become the first Lada produced.

More than two decades later, on November 21, 1989, and in the greatest secrecy, Fiat and Lada signed a memorandum of intent for joint production, under the code name “A-93” (Anno-93 in Italian). A second agreement was concluded a few weeks later between Lada and Porsche, which would supply the engine, a new 1100 cc four-cylinder that was economical, modern, and high-performance.

With a Porsche engine, a brand-new factory, and the firepower of Fiat and AvtoVAZ, the future Fiat Punto and Lada Kalina seem to be born under a lucky star. To complete this ambitious project, the two partners must nail the design of their car.

Lada's designers, along with those from Fiat, then went to Italdesign in Moncalieri, a company headed by the famous Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, to present their vision of the future city car. The Russians didn't come empty-handed, with several sketches and even some fairly finished models.

For their part, the Italians had only one project to present. In the spring of 1990, several models were built, inspired by the future Lada 110 then under development, in three- and five-door versions, the result of a collaboration between Italians and Russians. For its part, Porsche delivered around twenty engines to enable the assembly of rolling prototypes.

Just as the project seemed to be on track, the USSR suddenly collapsed. Lada was hit hard by this change of regime and had to urgently convert to a market economy.

The coffers are empty, and the chances of ever seeing the Elabuga plant built are becoming close to zero. FIAT and Lada decide to end the project and part ways as good friends. But the work already done will not be lost on everyone.

Two years later, Fiat presented the Punto, the Italian version of the A-93 project. Everyone praised its modern lines and no one imagined that it owed its design to the Russian stylists at Lada!

In fact, this Punto is an exact copy of the project proposed by the Soviets three years earlier, with the same silhouette, the same volumes, and the same vertical lights in the rear pillars, a unique proposition at the time. The 1995 car of the year owes a lot to Lada.

After the country's collapse, Boris Berezovsky, a controversial Russian businessman with close ties to mafia circles, relaunched the project.

Starting from the A-93 project and taking inspiration from European cars (the car looks a lot like the Opel Corsa), the project looks great and progresses well until the businessman flees to the UK with the project money! The factory simply can no longer afford to continue its city car project.

Ultimately, the engineers will do what they do best: a lot with nothing. They will take the Samara's platform and place a body from the new model on it. A tinkering that works, and even allows this city car to offer good interior space.

But the project progressed slowly, too slowly. The factory was working simultaneously on a new Niva project and the launch of the 110. Very few resources were allocated to the Kalina project. While the first pre-production units were assembled in 1997, the second batch was not produced until 2001 and the final prototypes until 2002.

It would take until 2005 for the first production models to be produced in Togliatti, on a new, modernized production line. The Kalina was presented in four-door, five-door, and station wagon versions. A compact MPV was presented but never produced. Ultimately, the sedan with a trunk, the Russians' favorite body style, was produced first.

In 2007, the production rate had already reached 145,000 units per year. The assembly line was fully robotized, as was the welding workshop. The paint shop used the latest Western techniques, while the entire assembly line used new tools. A revolution at Lada!

It's worth noting that the Kalina shares the Fiat Punto's sheet metal shapes, truncated tail, and vertical taillights. Inside, the steering wheel is very reminiscent of the Lancia Y, while the dashboard is strikingly reminiscent of the Fiat Marea.

At launch, the Kalina was available with the 1.6 8s of 81 hp, then, from 2007, with a new 1.4 16s of 90 hp. In May 2008, a “Sport” version appeared with a 1.6 16s engine of 98 hp.

In August 2010, a new Chita-Khabarovsk highway was inaugurated with a Kalina Sport driven by Vladimir Putin, then Prime Minister of Russia. All the media were talking about the Kalina, but few dared to report the breakdown that occurred on the car during this journey.

In 2014, Renault acquired 25% of Avtovaz, the manufacturer of the Lada. It was then that the Lada garage in Ivry-sur-Seine received a rather special order for a Kalina, signed by the Renault Technocentre. The car was discreetly delivered to Renault to be completely dismantled and analyzed.

Renault engineers will agree: not only is this Kalina well-designed, but the continuous improvements since its launch make it a highly recommendable car. So much so that the platform will be used by Renault's partners, Nissan and Datsun, and by the Granta, which will succeed the Kalina.

Renault isn't the only French manufacturer interested in the Kalina. A diesel version powered by a 70 hp engine supplied by Peugeot will be presented to Russian journalists and tested.

It never went into production due to low demand for diesel engines in Russia. An electric version was also developed in 2012, with a range of 140 km, with the same result.

The Kalina 1118 (sedan), 1119 (five-door) and 1117 (estate) will be produced in 760,000 units, to which must be added 160,000 units of the restyled version as well as several thousand units of the Datsun Mi-do, a clone manufactured for Nissan.

It will be imported into France from September 2009, with unbeatable prices starting at €7,950 for the five-door and €7,990 for the estate. Reliable, modern, and rather well-built, this Kalina will, above all, usher Lada into a new era.