CarBrandLogos archive · Lada · 2011

LadaGranta

Built to be the cheapest new car in Russia, and it has stayed there.

Photo: Ilya Plekhanov · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Lada history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Lada Granta, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Granta was conceived after the 2008 financial crisis with an explicit target: a new car that ordinary Russian buyers could still afford. AvtoVAZ, by then working within the Renault-Nissan alliance, developed it from the Kalina platform rather than starting fresh, simplified where it could, and priced it below everything else on the market when it launched in December 2011.

2021 Lada Granta sedan grey rear · Throwawayacc222 · CC0

Design and engineering

Mechanically it is deliberately undemanding. A transverse 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine, in eight-valve or sixteen-valve form, drives the front wheels through a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. Bodies have included a four-door saloon, a five-door liftback added for 2014, a hatchback and, after the 2018 facelift, an estate. Assembly runs at Togliatti and Izhevsk and at plants in Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Egypt and Kazakhstan.

2016 Lada Granta light blue front · Throwawayacc222 · CC0

In production

The strategy worked. The Granta has spent much of the past decade as the best-selling car in Russia, a position that hardened after 2022 when most foreign manufacturers withdrew from the market and AvtoVAZ was left with limited competition and limited access to imported components. Later cars were simplified further, dropping equipment that could no longer be sourced. The Iskra is set to replace it.

2015 Lada Granta light blue rear · Throwawayacc222 · CC0

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

2011–present

Engine

1.6&nbsp

Body

4-door saloon

Technical specification

The Granta, in detail.

Production: December 2011–present
Class: Subcompact (B)
Body style: 4-door saloon; 5-door liftback (starting 2014 model year); 5-door hatchback; 5-door estate (after 2018 facelift)
Layout: Transverse Front engine, front-wheel-drive
Engine: 1.6 L VAZ-11183-50/21116 SOHC 8-valve I4 (petrol); 1.6 L VAZ-21126/21127 DOHC 16-valve I4 (petrol)
Transmission: 5-speed manual; 4-speed automatic
Assembly: Russia: Tolyatti (AvtoVAZ); Russia: Argun, Chechen Republic; Argun (Chechen Avto); Russia: Izhevsk (IzhAvto); Azerbaijan: Ganja, Azerbaijan; Ganja (Ganja Auto Plant); Egypt: Cairo (Alamal Group); Kazakhstan: Ust-Kamenogo
Manufacturer: Lada (AvtoVAZ)