KAMAZ novelties became winners of the Grand-Prix Behind the Wheel – Commercial Vehicles contest in three nominations at once. The awarding ceremony was held during the international exhibition of buses BW Expo-2022 in Moscow.
The Behind the Wheel – Commercial Vehicles Grand Prix Contest was established by Za Rulem Publishing House last year. Its peculiarity is that the commercial vehicles are evaluated not by officials and journalists, but by representatives of major freight and passenger transport companies. The jury consisted of more than twenty people who evaluated the contenders by such criteria as efficiency in everyday work, design, construction of a vehicle, etc. The winners of the Grand Prix were the vehicles with the most votes in each of the nominations.
As organizers noticed, 12 models participated in the nomination Large Class Buses, and four buses got the same quantity of votes. As a result, an extra-large KAMAZ-6299-40-5F city bus, a restyled NEFAZ-5299-30-57 low-entry city bus and a restyled NEFAZ-5299-40-52 low-floor city bus were declared the winners.
KAMAZ-43089 (Compass-12) won in the nomination Medium-Duty Trucks. This truck appeared on Russian market at the beginning of 2022 and gained popularity with customers in a short period of time. The model belongs to the delivery class vehicles, which are primarily designed for work in cities and suburbs, but can also be used for long-distance transportations.
In addition, the KAMAZ-910.10-550 diesel engine was named a winner in the Best Power Unit category. It is installed on the KAMAZ family of the newest K5 generation vehicles. This model is one of the best in the class of engines with capacity of 12-13 liters and has high consumer characteristics. Thus, the power of serial engines is 450-550 hp, the lifetime is up to 1.5 million km, the service interval is 120 thousand km, the brake power is up to 300 kW. The specific fuel consumption is 179 g/kWh. As they say in the KAMAZ Research and Development Center, the engine has a potential decrease in fuel consumption by 6-7%: based on the results of investigation tests, fuel efficiency 172 g/kWh. Also among the advantages of KAMAZ-910.10-550 are availability of versions on alternative fuels (gas fuel) and availability of configurations for general purpose applications.
The awards were presented to Samat Sattarov, KAMAZ’s Director of Passenger Transport, during the BW Expo-2022 exhibition in Moscow. “I think this is the first time when three buses from one manufacturer received such high appraisals from the jury in one nomination. In general, KAMAZ’s victory in three nominations shows high quality of our product, proves that consumers appreciate it and it means that we are going in the right direction,” Samat Sattarov emphasized. “Despite all the difficulties, KAMAZ demonstrates a positive dynamics, and in February next year we will resume serial production of the most advanced KAMAZ-54901. It will be a fully localized version without parts of manufacturers from unfriendly countries. We hope that KAMAZ will expand its presence on the market and our customers will get an opportunity to order the most up-to-date Russian vehicles.”
It should be reminded that last year KAMAZ was also acknowledged the winner of the Grand-Prix Behind the Wheel – Commercial Vehicles contest. The KAMAZ-6595 heavy dump truck won in the Construction Trucks category, and the KAMAZ-6292 articulated electric bus won in the Large Class Buses category.