Just as little Lada as Largus
Almost a year ago, Renault Group sold its entire interest in the parent company, with the result that Lada now has to tap into a different barrel for the technology of its models. Lada looks at China and transforms an SUV-like FAW into the largest and perhaps most advanced Lada ever.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has prompted many countries and companies to break off cooperation with Russia. Several car brands withdrew from the Russian market and Renault Group sold its stake in Lada’s parent company. That meant that at least the part of the Lada models that was modeled on Renault can no longer be produced. The Lada XRay which uses Dacia’s B0 platform and the Largus which is nothing more than a first generation Logan MCV with Lada sauce are no longer being built. The production of the Vesta, the Granta family and the Niva Travel and Niva Legend was also halted for a long time, but is slowly getting going again. For new models, Lada no longer has to look to the West for the time being, so it is forced to conjure up its models from elsewhere. Today we see the first result of that.
Bestune T77
This is the Lada X-Cross 5, a new SUV that Russian automotive journalist and editor-in-chief of the Russian magazine Za Rulem Maxim Kadakov posted photos of in his channel on Telegram. The Lada X-Cross 5 is little more than a Bestune T77 (photos 6 to 9) on which Lada has been allowed to print its own badges. The Lada X-Cross 5 has the same exterior and even the same interior, so complete with both a digital instrument panel and a 12.3-inch display in the center tunnel. Never before has a Lada looked so flashy on the inside.
The Lada X-Cross 5 – which will be produced at the AvtoVaz factory in St. Petersburg – is one-to-one equal to the Bestune T77, but what kind of model is it? The T77 has been in production since 2018 and is the first model of FAW’s Besturn sub-brand that has been renamed Bestune. The T77 is 4.53 meters long and has a wheelbase of 2.6 meters, making it comparable in size to cars such as the Kia Sportage. Under the hood is a 169 hp 1.5 turbo engine that kicks it up to 258 Nm. The T77 can park automatically and even has a digital assistant on board that manifests itself centrally on the dashboard by means of a hologram. Hip. Model name X-Cross 5 seems to indicate that Lada is also switching to ‘numbering’ of its models. So count on the arrival of several (Chinese) X-Cross-Ladas. We also receive sounds about the return of the Lada Largus, although it would only appear as an EV.
