New Niva?
May 12, 2026
Alex KiersteinA patent image appears to show a new Lada Niva that may have trouble upstaging its ancient namesake.
These Lada Niva patent images show a car. Well, a unibody 4×4. A crossover?
That’s the complicated part, I guess. And it always has been.
The original Lada Niva seems to have, almost accidentally, hit upon a formula for something extremely rugged and capable, but also carlike and even cute. Something that the Soviets were worried was too crude to sell abroad, and yet became a smash hit in Europe (France in particular). And something that no other offroad-oriented car has really hit on, aesthetically or dynamically. The Suzuki Jimny is body-on-frame and more truckish; the Subaru Crosstrek is car-based and more carlike; neither has the particular overall vibe. Nor have they been in production continuously since 1977. (Fiat Panda/VW Golf Country, arguably? –ED)
You just know it when you see it, I suppose. And boy, let me tell you, when Chevrolet tried to replace the Niva, they absolutely did not see it. The Chevrolet Niva, based on the old Niva’s running gear but with a depressingly boring Mazda-Tribute-reimagined-by-Opel look, was not the regime-spanning hit its ancient ancestor was. To wit, Chevrolet doesn’t sell cars in Russia any more, and the original Niva survives.
To be fair, after a facelift, the Chevrolet Niva became the Lada Niva Traveler, and that is still in production. And it’s not like the Chevrolet Niva killed the car business over there; western sanctions nuked the car market, and oil prices softened the ruble, to the point it wasn’t worth the trouble. GM sold its share in the GM-Autovaz joint venture and pulled out of Europe almost entirely in the late 2010s. But the Chevrolet Niva and its direct successor(s) didn’t capture the original’s charm.
The new one might. These patent images, spotted on the Russian IP registry by Carscoops, show a blocky crossover with clear heritage elements. The overall shape, the turn signal location, the chunky rear end. It’s not a 1:1 representation modernized, nor is it a reinterpretation in the way the new Renault 5 EV is. It’s a Niva-inspired Niva.
Known as the Autovaz T-134 internally, its underpinnings are a little murky. Sources seem to agree it was originally going to be based on a Renault platform, related to the Dacia Duster, but then Renault pulled out of Russia. Autovaz may be using the in-house chassis under the Lada Vesta, a conventional small car. That could mean a much different powertrain than the old longitudinal layout with a rear solid axle and a center locking diff.
Maybe it doesn’t need to be as capable. After all, there’s no sign of the original ending production anytime soon.
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