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RIDA, riding high with armored luxury vehicles |
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Oleg Kouzbit, Managing Editor
Nizhny Novgorod has long been known as an automotive center and for its defense industry. The RIDA Industrial Group may not be as well known as GAZ, but in key niche markets, it has carved out an enviable reputation. In the banking industry, or example, its cash-in-transit (CIT) armored cars are the standard.
Now RIDA is branching out to focus on custom-made luxury armored cars and ballistic glass production. It has also begun to cooperate with the world’s leading car design ateliers and has made a big splash in the Middle-Eastern market with handsome sales of its cube-on/in vehicles.
But RIDA’s biggest push is creating custom-made luxury armored cars. Its most recent success is certification of a wide range of restyled luxury armored car brands. RIDA’s newly-certified armored modification of the Mercedes S221 joins an already impressive product line that now includes such popular luxury models as the Land Cruiser 200, Lexus LX 570, Mercedes GL-class and Gelendwagen. To find out more about this unique market, Marchmont spoke with RIDA’s Chairman of the Board Yury Yavorsky.
”In August this year, our entire product line was certified for bullet resistance in Germany’s Ulm Certification Center and the RF Ministry of Interior’s Research Institute,” Mr. Yavorsky began.
”RIDA has become the frontrunner in manufacturing top-class armored cars in Russia,” he continued, “and now we’re ready to begin serial production of up to 150 units per year.”
Isn’t making armored cars kind of exotic? Is there sufficient demand?
“Over the past few years we have been moving from the protected car market’s cheapest CIT segment to building custom vehicles for people whose level of responsibility makes them physically vulnerable. These are people like prosecutors in North Caucasus regions, top police, investigation and security officials, as well as bankers and just very wealthy people. They have to travel in armor as they are always a target – not as individuals but as “carriers” of power, secrets or big money. When they order our cars, they are interested in security guarantees rather than price.”
What chassis do you use for CITs?
“We prefer Volkswagen’s, which are best fit for armoring. We have been cutting back on GAZ chassis because they are too fragile for our purposes. But as I said, I am encouraging my team to prepare for the high-end segment exclusively. VIP-vehicles provide a small but stable and highly profitable market. We expect to halt CIT manufacture completely before the year-end.”
What about competition?
“We are in transition from the mass and inexpensive CIT market to the luxury segment where we do not seem to have any sizable competitors in Russia whatsoever in either speed/quality of manufacture or product line. There is tiny competition, but only in certain areas. For instance, we are Russia’s exclusive makers of the armored Land Cruiser 200, but other firms make an armored Land Cruiser 100 in micro-quantities of two to three cars a year, which is hardly competition to almost a hundred a year we make.”
RIDA’s armored car built on the chassis of a new S-class Mercedes fresh out of a showroom costs about $625,000 with tuning. A car with the same protection and design officially imported from Germany will cost over $1m, Mr. Yavorsky explained.
“We have the advantage of using more economical materials, energy and labor force. But the key plus is own production of ballistic glass, which drives the cost down.”
What's unique about the glass?
“In 2007 we launched production of ballistic glass, which laid the foundation for the manufacture of transparent armor to highest international standards. What makes it unique is the combination of exclusive technologies to create glass that is not very thick but is still capable of protecting against ammunition used by even the most advanced firearms. Our ballistic glass not only protects against bullets fired from a Kalashnikov, but even armor-incendiary and sniper rifle bullets. We design special components, couplings and overlaps between transparent and ordinary armor to deflect bullet entry at any angle into habitable areas of the vehicle in case it ricochets. This is very difficult work which takes a zillion tests and engineering designs to perfect.”
Do foreigners show interest in your activity?
“We have been present in the Middle-Eastern market for four years already. We have a business in Jordan. Unlike Russia, the competition is fierce there, but we have still been able to sell more than 150 cars in that market, mostly Land Cruiser SUVs. Our marketing target there is 50 cars a year. Clients are both wealthy Arabs and government officials. Also, we are currently making two Mercedes cars for clients in Germany. It is the first time we are challenging Germans on their home turf. Further expansion is only a matter of time.”
You have a tuning division. How is it faring?
“In the automotive world there are several ateliers renowned for their world-class designs and technical improvements. RIDA is now a general agent for the Brabus atelier in the region. We have also signed an agreement with Overfinch on representation of their interests and fabrication of their proprietary elements on our cars.
"This is a separate business in our industrial group outside armoring, assigned to our small-series factory. A car can be delivered there for just tuning, not armoring, and leave the place with very different looks. We once were asked to do tuning of a $240,000 car that exited our factory with a price tag of $600,000! People are all different. Some want an exhaust made of gold, and others prefer wheel plates with diamonds. It’s really an ultra-class market for people with an unorthodox philosophy of life.”
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