- Russo-Balt
Russo-Balt (sometimes Russobalt or Russo-Baltique) was the first
Russia n company that produced cars between 1909 and 1923.Russo-Baltic Wagon Corp.
The Russo-Baltic Wagon Factory ( _de. Russisch-Baltischen Waggonfabrik; _ru. Русско-Балтийский вагонный завод, RBVZ) was founded in 1874 in
Riga , then a major industiral centre ofRussian Empire . Originally the new company was a subsidiary of theVan der Zypen & Charlier company inCologne-Deutz ,Germany . In 1894 the majority of its shares were sold to investors in Riga andSt. Petersburg , among them localBaltic German merchants F. Meyer, K. Amelung, and Chr. Schroeder, as well as Schaje Berlin, a relative ofIsaiah Berlin . The company eventually grew to 3,800 employees. [cite book |title=The Tsar's Loyal Germans:The Riga German Community—Social Change and the Nationality Question, 1855–1905 |last=Henriksson |first=Anders |year=1983 |publisher=East European Monographs |location=Boulder, CO |isbn=0880330201 |pages=p. 122 ]Automobile manufacturing
Between 1909 and 1915 the cars were built at the railway car factory RBVZ. After the
1917 revolution a second factory was opened in St. Petersburg, where they built armoured cars on chassis produced in Riga. In 1922, the production was moved from St. Petersburg to BTAZ inMoscow . Russo-Balt produced trucks, buses and cars, often more or less copies of cars from the GermanRex-Simplex or BelgianFondu .Only two original cars have survived to the present day. One is a Russo-Balt
fire engine built on truck chassis Type D in year 1912. Car is on display at theRiga Motor Museum inLatvia . Another one is Russo-Balt K12/20 from 1911, is shown at thePolytechnical Museum in Moscow, Russia.Today in Riga, Latvia, there is a company named Russo-Balt that manufactures trailers. There are no connection to pre-war Russo-Balt except company name.Fact|date=July 2008
Concept car
The brand "Руссо-Балт" was exhumed in 2006 by a group of German and Russian investors to propose a luxury concept car, the Russo-Baltique Impression, billed as a
coupé with strong hints of European styling of the early thirties. The car uses mechanical parts ofMercedes origin (Mercedes CL63 AMG), was first introduced at the 2006Concours d'Elegance .The car will be produced by the German company Gerg GmbH, a total production of 10 to 15 cars maximum is expected, with a production rate of 2 to 3 cars a year. The selling price would be of around 50,000,000 rubles or 1,800,000 US dollars.
References
See also
*
Alexander Leutner & Co. External links
* [http://www.russobalt.lv Official site of the Latvian manufacturer]
* [http://www.russobaltique.com/ Russo-Baltique homepage]
Russian Automotive Makers
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