"On the South American market the Russian off-road car will be sold as Diva," he said.
Divas will come out in three modifications - with carburetor and diesel engines, as well as the mass-produced armored cars featuring German and Swedish technologies.
Darrak said that his works "will be the first and only South American mass producer of armored cars, demand for which is high in Colombia, Brazil and Argentina." This year about 1,000 cars of Russian make will be produced and in three years to come the volume of assembly will reach 5,000 cars a year.
In turn, Russian ambassador to Uruguay Yan Burliai told RIA Novosti that "Russian, Uruguayan and French specialists have been working on the design of assembly in Uruguay. It is a good example of joint work in such a high-tech sphere as automobile manufacture." "There are good possibilities and prospects for such interaction in Uruguay," the Russian diplomat believes.
The manufacture of Russian cars in that South American country will make it possible to export them duty free to countries of MERCOSUR. Besides Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia make part of this organization. Peru and Chile are its associated members.
To popularize Divas the first assembled cars set out on the over 10,000-kilometer-long Montevideo-Salvador-Rio de Janeiro rally.
Mass manufacture of Diva cars will begin in May 2004.
