Olga Nikitina’s column about the paid pre-order for the future Russian electric car “Atom”

Manufacturers of the future Russian electric car Atom opened a pre-order for it on July 31 – according to the website, the cost of booking is 7 thousand rubles. The pre-order gives the right to receive an offer to conclude a contract for the sale of an electric vehicle in the first production series, which is scheduled for June 1, 2025, the website says. The size of the first batch has already been determined – 15 thousand cars.

In the automotive industry, paid pre-orders are rare, and in this case we are talking about a car that does not yet exist, even its characteristics are unknown. In the Atom Telegram channel, users in the comments immediately remembered the pre-order program for the Yo-mobile project that never took place – which, however, did not involve a fee.

In response, users were informed that the pre-order was “a confirmation of the seriousness of the intention and the expressed interest in the project.” Indeed, theoretically, with a “paid entrance”, the manufacturer will be able to more realistically assess the demand for his project, in contrast to one-click registration – for the same “Yo-mobile” 50 thousand applications were collected per day.

However, in reality, the difference is not so great, given the unclear parameters of Atom: in the offer, the manufacturer states that he does not have accurate information about the cost, serial production date, clear configuration and technical properties. Until now, the price positioning of the models is also unclear – the manufacturer considered both focusing on premium analog models and mass cars.

It is difficult to expect that people who are willing to pay 7 thousand rubles intend to buy a car about which they know nothing. In addition, the offer notes that the cost of the pre-order can be reduced “for a particular participant”, so subsequent reports about the number of ordered cars should be treated with a grain of salt.

The company, in its response to users regarding the pre-order, emphasizes that “we are not involved in fundraising and funds do not finance the project.” It is probably really difficult to raise such a significant amount, however, pre-order data can be used to attract new investors to the project in addition to the structure of Rosatom and Renera. Still, now the prospects for a domestic electric car, especially with the participation of Chinese engineers and the experience of the head of KamAZ, Sergey Kogogin, look better than in the days of the Yo-mobile.

But it does not seem that citizens are now seriously evaluating the prospects of the project. “Supporting the domestic is the full program,” one of the users who left a comment under the pre-order post wrote in his Telegram channel. This seems to be the main motivation.