Moskvitch (also written as Moskvich, Moskvič, or Moskwitsch) is a Soviet/Russian automobile brand produced by AZLK from 1946 to 1991 and by OAO Moskvitch from 1991 to 2001. Production later resumed in 2022. The word moskvich  itself translates as "a native of Moscow, a Moscovite". It was used to point out the original location of the cars manufactured there.

The Soviet Union entered a series of five-year plans in 1928 under the rule of Joseph Stalin. The goals of the plan was to rapidly industrialise the economy of the Soviet Union. Included in these plans were provisions for the development of domestic automobile production. It was assumed that by improving the quality of life for the affected citizens and providing them with the opportunity to learn to drive during peacetime, they would constitute a cadre of trained drivers for the Red army in the event of armed conflict.

Industrial cooperation between Russia and the American Ford Motor Company dated back to the era of Nicholas II, with the company being an important supplier of passenger and commercial vehicles such as tractors and trucks. This cooperation persisted despite the events and ideology of the Russian Revolution, with tens of thousands of vehicles imported during the 1910s and 1920s. This was deemed necessary due to the devastation of the state and its economic output following the Great War, occupation of Russian territories by the Central Powers, and the Russian Civil War.

The construction of the Moscow Car Assembly Factory  began in 1929. In December 1930, the plant received the name of KIM (Factory named after Communist Youth International), from 1930 to 1939 its official name was Moscow Car Assembly Factory named after KIM and then from 1939 until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War it was called Moscow Car Factory named after KIM.

kim10  1940—1941

In 1930, the licensed production of Ford Model A and Ford Model AA vehicles began. These were assembled using knock-down kits. In 1933, the plant became a branch of GAZ and began to assemble GAZ-A and GAZ-AA vehicles. 

In 1939, KIM was no longer a subsidiary of GAZ and in the following year it started to produce their first own model, the KIM 10 inspired by the Ford Prefect. The plant's newly formed design department was headed by A. N. Ostrovtsev, an engineer from the NAMI, and tasked by the Economic Committee of Sovnarkom with designing a small economy car suitable for large scale manufacture. From November 1940 to April 1941, 338 sedans were assembled. Exact production numbers for the phaeton version are unknown.

Following the war, the Soviet Union requested vehicle tooling and designs from Germany as part of war reparations, to compensate for the loss of industrial equipment in the Battle of Moscow. 

In August 1945, the State Defense Committee published Order No. 9905, which prescribed the start of production of the Kadett, under the Moskvitch-400 name. The implementation of this order was however deeply complicated. The Opelwerk Brandenburg plant had been deeply involved in the Nazi German war effort, producing aircraft engines for the Luftwaffe, and had been heavily damaged by Allied bombing. However, a number of Kadetts had been captured by the Red Army and were available for study, and was accomplished through joint Soviet-German ventures overseen by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany.

Production of the Moskvitch 400-420 began in December 1946, and continued for ten years until 1956 with the improved Moskvitch 401. In total 247.439 400 and 401 models had been built, with some being exported to countries such as Belgium, East Germany and Norway.

400

Development began in 1944, following a prewar plan to produce a domestically built car able to be used and maintained by citizens living outside major cities.^[2] The KIM factory was selected to build the car, with the prewar KIM-10-52 (not built due to the Second World War) as a basis.

The new car was ready for production before the end of 1946 (somewhat behind the planned June deadline): the first 400-420 was built 9 December, "400" meant a type of engine, and "420" the (saloon) body style. With unitized construction, independent front suspension, three-speed manual transmission. and hydraulic brakes, it was powered by a 23 hp 1,074 cc  inline four.  Acceleration 0–80 km/h took 55 seconds, and achieved 9 L/100 km(the best of any Soviet car at that time).

In 1948, a woodie van, the 400-422, with an 800 kg  payload, went into production but the similar prototype 400-421 estate and a pick-up never did. The 400-420A cabriolet debuted in 1949.

The 400 went on sale in Belgium in October 1950, making it a very early Soviet automotive export product.

The Moskvitch 401 (full designation: Moskvitch 401-420) was introduced in 1954, an improved variant of the 400-420.

402

The Moskvitch 402 is a compact car manufactured by the former Soviet automobile maker MZMA, first time introduced in 1956 as a second generation of the Moskvitch series. In comparison with its predecessor, the Moskvitch-401, the M-402 model featured many improvements which included independent suspension with double wishbones, telescopic shock absorbers, 12-volt electrics, more solid and comfortable car body, more modern trunk, heater, standard car radio, wider viewing range for the driver, etc.

The styling of the Moskvitch-402 followed the fashion set by similar-sized cars of its time such as the Hillman Minx, FIAT 1100, Ford Prefect 100E, Jowett Javelin, and Ford Consul Mk1, as well as by the larger GAZ-21 Volga, whose designers took part in the creation of this car.

The M-402 was the first Moskvitch designed in the Soviet Union and not based on any foreign model. It utilized a 35 hp  1222 cc  inline four-cylinder flathead engine derived from the 1074 cc  of its predecessors. The top speed was 88–90 kilometres per hour.

The estate (402-423) appeared in 1957, with folding rear seats and a 250 kg payload. Proposed three-door and sedan delivery models were not produced.

With the new M-407-series 45 hp  1358 cc  overhead valve engine, in 1958, the M-402 became the Moskvitch-407. A four-speed transmission with synchromesh appeared in December 1959, in place of the three-speed.

408

The Moskvitch-408 (also referred to as the Moskvich-408, and M-408) series is a small family car produced by the Soviet car manufacturer MZMA/AZLK between 1964 and 1975. The first prototype was made in 1960.

The M-408, the first of the series, replaced the second generation Moskvitch 407 as the main production model; it had a longer wheelbase than the 407. Design work started in 1959, and the first prototype appeared in March 1961. The first production 408 was built 1 August 1964.

First marketed body styles of the main version were a four-door saloon (base), five-door estate (the model M-426, an upgrade of second generation M-423 and M-424), and a three-door sedan delivery (the M-433, an upgrade of the second generation M-432 delivery pick-up).

The first series of cars were produced between 1964 and 1969 in Moscow. These automobiles had vertical rear lights, two or four round headlights, a front bench seat, and a 4-speed manual transmission with column mounted gear lever. The second series was produced between 1969 and 1976. It had the same engine and transmission as its predecessor, but an updated body fitted with rectangular headlights and horizontal rear lights, with triangular turn signal markers mounted on tailfins.

412

The Moskvitch 412  is a small family car produced by Soviet/Russian manufacturer MZMA/AZLK in Moscow from 1967 to 1975, and by IZh in Izhevsk from 1967 to 1982 (also known as IZh-412). It was a more powerful and prestigious version of the M-408 model, offering more features for a higher price.

The Moskvitch 412 derived from the Moskvitch 408, differing in more powerful 1.5 engine. The UZAM-412 had a capacity of 1478 cc and developed 75 horsepower. Its more powerful version, the Moskvitch-412-2V, had 100 h.p. and was installed on sports cars.

Initially, the 412 was designed as a replacement for the 408, but they ended up being built together at the same plant. The decision to keep 408 in production was that it was more suited to harsh conditions.

2140

The Moskvitch 2140 series is a small family car produced by Soviet automotive maker AZLK from January 1976 to 1988.

It started first as Moskvitch 2138 and Moskvitch 2140 on a modified 412 platform. Pre-production models were shown during 1975. Starting in 1981, the modernised modification of the M-2140 export/luxury model was also designed and branded "2140 SL" in the Eastern Bloc countries and "1500 SL" outside. The most notable differences between the two models were redesigned dashboard and front seat headrests in the M-2140.

Starting in 1982, the M-2138 models were discontinued and the M-2140 became the only Moskvitch car available in all markets. It was face-lifted the same year: the shield logo was changed to feature "АЗЛК" (AZLK) written in metallic outline, the grille coating switched from metal to plastic, and both side mirrors were slightly redesigned to be less heavy. The station wagon variant M-2137 was the last of Soviet cars to still feature taillight fins, until the model was discontinued in 1985.

aleko/2141

1986-2002

The Moskvitch-2141, also known under the trade name Aleko  is a Russian mid-size car that was first announced in 1985 and sold in the Soviet Union and its successor states between 1986 and 1997 by the Moskvitch Company, based in Moscow, Russia. It was replaced by the modernised M-2141-02 Svyatogor and its sedan body version, the M-2142, in 1997–2002.

The Aleko was a huge improvement over previous Moskvitch models, which were durable but old-fashioned sedans (saloons) and station wagons (estates) with rear-wheel drive and a solid rear axle, and had no common parts with them apart from the engine and some other minor details.

The Aleko turned out to be quite a breakthrough for the Soviet automotive industry of its time. It almost became the first front-wheel drive hatchback of the Soviet Union, but due to the fact that its development took a further two years for Moskvitch to set up the manufacturing, the Lada Samara arrived first.

The Aleko was sold mostly on the domestic market, but in the late 1980s it was exported too. In some export markets, including France and Germany, the cars were advertised as the Lada Aleko.

2142

The Moskvitch 2142 is a line of large family cars produced by AZLK's Moskvitch division from 1998 to its bankruptcy in 2002. It was the last and most advanced line of Moskvitch vehicles, marking the end of the fifth generation. Only 3500 vehicles were produced, all aimed at executive and business markets.

Three versions of the 2142 were marketed: the Knjaz Vladimir (large family saloon), Ivan Kalita (executive saloon), and the Duet (executive coupé).

All 2142 models were fitted with Renault engines, which was an initiative on the side of the projected merger with AvtoVAZ in the late 1990s. Seeing as AvtoVAZ was in direct competition to AZLK at the time, and succeeded much more in lower-scale demand, Renault rejected the offer in 2002, forcing AZLK to stop production. All models were discontinued by mid-August 2002, and the company filed for bankruptcy on 3 September 2002.

In May 2022, as a result of international sanctions against Russia, Renault sold its Moscow plant to the Moscow city government which intended to nationalize the facility for renewed production of vehicles under the Moskvitch name.

On October 20, the mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, said that the production of Moskvich vehicles will resume in December at Renault's former factory in Moscow, now renamed the Moscow Automobile Factory Moskvich.

On December 26, 2022, the Moskvitch 3 and Moskvitch 3e went on sale in Russia, with the JAC JS4 based cars produced in association with truck manufacturer Kamaz.

3

The new Moskvitch 3 is actually a JAC JS4. This compact SUV will be sent to the Russian factory as a kit - as a Semi Knocked-Down package (SKD) - and assembled in Moscow. The workers only have to replace the logo with Moskvich nameplates.

Like the donor model from JAC-orgine, the 4.41-metre-long Moskvitch 3 is offered with a 1.5-litre petrol engine that combines 150 hp with a maximum torque of 210 Nm. You have the choice between a six-speed manual gearbox or a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The range also includes a 100% electric variant of the Moskvitch 3 based on the JAC e-JS4, which would combine a system output of 197 hp with a 66 kWh battery pack. Driving range? 500 kilometers, at least according to the Chinese measurement cycle.

If all goes according to plan, 600 more copies of the Moskvitch 3 will be built in 2022, 400 of which will have a petrol and 200 an electric motor. To pick up the pace considerably in 2023. The intention is also to produce more and more parts in Russia, so that those kits supplied from China would no longer be needed.

6

2023-now

The Moskvitch 6 sedan is based on the JAC Sehol A5. It is a traditional 4-door sedan, positioned in the C segment (Jetta, Corolla, Elantra...). 

The Moskvich 6 will be offered to customers with a basic 1.5-liter turbocharged engine producing 136 hp, paired with a CVT. The 6 will be available in two trim levels – "Comfort" and "Business".  At the same time, versions with a more powerful engine (1.5 L; 174 hp) and a 6-speed "robot" will appear later.

Inside, we find air conditioning, a heated steering wheel, Multimedia with 10.4-inch display and rearview camera. The display is located in the middle of the center console and will delight you with the instant connection of smartphones via Android Auto or Apple CarPlay and a high-quality picture.