Oka (automobile) Details, Photos and Videos

The Lada Оkа (VAZ-1111, SeAZ-1111, КаmАZ-1111, Astro 11301) (Russian: Ока (ВАЗ-1111, СеАЗ-1111, КамАЗ-1111)) is a city car designed in the Soviet Union in the later part of the seventies by AvtoVAZ. It entered production in 1988 powered by a 650 cc (40 cu in) SOHC two-cylinder engine. While developed at AutoVAZ by a team led by Yuri Kuteev, no production models were built there. Instead, manufacturing was outsourced to SeAZ factory in Serpukhov and ZMA in Naberezhnye Chelny (formerly owned by Kamaz and now owned by SeverstalAvto). Massive plans were in place for a new plant in Yelabuga, but these failed to materialize. The car was also produced in Azerbaijan by the Gyandzha Auto Plant. The name comes from the Oka River in Russia upon which Serpukhov is situated. For a large part of its existence its electric version was the only serially produced electric car in the world.

This affordable, lightweight and simple automobile replaced the air-cooled, rear-engined ZAZ Zaporozhets 966-968 series models as "the people's car". SeAZ factory specialized in building purpose-built vehicles for handicapped drivers and by the 1970s their offering was the S-3D, a spartan, boxy two-seat sedan powered by a motorcycle engine. Despite being noisy and smoky, the S-3D was, nevertheless, very popular with mobility-challenged drivers many of whom were World War II veterans and, being such, received their vehicles free of charge. When engineers in Serpukhov under factory manager Alexander Popov (who told Minavtoprom (the automotive ministry) SeAZ needed a new product) conceived the Oka, they turned to their VAZ colleagues for help. The project was approved in 1983. Prior to the Oka, VAZ designers had been working on a number of microcars, including a similar-looking variant of the VAZ-1101 offered by the designer Yuri Danilov in 1971, but those models did not go into production.

The tiny car was to be a replacement for the S-3D, and, like its predecessor, featured a simple motorcycle engine. Andrei Rozov, one of lead engine designers at VAZ, proposed a new three-cylinder engine, but, due to time constraints, that engine was not developed, and the decision was made to employ a two-cylinder variant of the VAZ-2108 four-cylinder engine by essentially chopping the latter in half. It was 1983, and the first Soviet front-wheel drive automobile, the 2108, was ready to hit the market. The Oka quickly became the next "people's car" project, a vehicle that "every factory engineer can afford".

The inspiration for Yuri Vereschagin, the VAZ exterior designer who penned the Oka, came from Japanese kei cars, such as the Daihatsu Cuore, which in turn, and along with the similar-looking Fiat Uno and the Fiat Panda, resembled the styling of the iconic French supermini Renault 5; the inspiration, however, was limited only to the size and overall proportions, and the car was different in design. The Soviet Ministry preferred the Oka over other three-door microcars designed by SeAZ and NAMI, as well as over a different, futuristic variant of the new car proposed by Vereschagin in 1984. Tightly restricted by project specifications, he did his work believing that his creation had little chance of seeing production.

In the event, however, he was proven wrong, as the Oka's overall acceptable operating characteristics and low price resulted in some 700,000 examples rolling off the assembly line over a period of nearly two decades. During test drives on roads and in the Caucasus Mountains, the car proved to have good handling, roadholding and, surprisingly for a vehicle of its size, excellent off-road capabilities.

At the 1989 Moscow International Motor Show, VAZ exhibited a battery-electric version known as the VAZ-111E. The car was produced on a special-order basis until 1998. The 120 V worth of batteries were stored in the engine bay, beneath the seats and in the cargo bay, giving the car a range of approximately 100 km.

In 2002 the car was awarded zero stars out of a possible four by the Russian ARCAP safety assessment program; the version built in the ZMA factory was found to be marginally safer than the one built by SeAZ.

As of 2006, there were four versions of Oka distributed: basic VAZ-11113 Oka made by either ZMA (Naberezhnye Chelny) or SeAZ factory (33 hp, 125 km/h (78 mph) max, 3.2 litres per 100 km), "custom" VAZ-11301 Astro (49 hp) and VAZ-11113-27 Toyma - a light delivery vehicle with a cargo compartment instead of two rear seats.

Series production of the Oka ended in Russia in 2008, when SeAZ built the last batch of Oka's with Chinese EURO-2 engines.

Its road agility and acceleration rate (quite surprising for its appeal) prevented it from taking Zaporozhets' place in folklore (which takes its delight in the awkwardness and slow speed of the former).

Its small size and weight (635 kilograms), however, gave birth to a multitude of funny (and often true) stories involving several men carrying Oka away from its parking place.

Special modifications for disabled people (missing one or both legs or one arm) were being distributed for free through the Soviet Union's (and later Russia's) social service system.

Like its brethren VW Beetle, it often attracts the sentiment of the owner, so various customised and tuned versions are often seen at local exotic car shows.

As of 2014, an American company called Oka Auto USA, located in Las Vegas, Nevada, offered electrically powered Okas for the US neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) market called the Oka NEV ZEV. To conform to NEV regulations, the electric Oka's speed is limited to 25 mph.

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