The Company

The company SIO p.l.c. commenced its activities in 1999 at a rented car repair outlet and offices on no. 10, Čs. armády Street in Prague 6. Both the premises and equipments of the car and tyre service centre were gradually modernized. At present, the premises allow to carry out a complete range of repairs for UAZ cars in Prague metropolitan area. In addition SIO p.l.c. established a network of authorized car repair centres within the Czech Republic.

Today SIO p.l.c. is the exclusive accredited importer of traditional UAZ off-road cars in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. SIO p.l.c. is also bound by an agreement with the manufacturer to be exclusive agent for UAZ in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Based on this agreement, the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications accredited SIO p.l.c. as exclusive importer of UAZ cars into the Czech Republic (act no. 21 156/00-110 dated June 16, 2000).

Off-roads bearing the traditional UAZ mark are manufactured by Uljanovskij avtomobilnyj zavod in the Russian Federation. The production line in Uljanovsk comprises approx. 10 car type series and several engine types.

For its current main customer, the Army of the Czech Republic, SIO p.l.c. imports vehicles from the UAZ 31512 and UAZ 3962 type series (in the Army known as "UAZ 469" and "UAZ 452" respectively), as well as from UAZ 31514 type series which were derived from the "four-six-nine" version, but have some extras: fixed metal roof, enhanced instrument panel and improved seats. Optionally, according to the customer's demand, they may be delivered with power steering. The company is about to enter the market with two new type series: UAZ 3160 TD and UAZ 3162 TD.

Future plans

Taking into account the insufficient motor power and high emission limits the engines from Uljanovsk have, SIO p.l.c. has developed and tested in traffic the use of a new type supercharged diesel oil engine VM 428 LTM produced by VM Motori S.p.A. in Italy. This engine currently runs in approx. 10 UAZ 452s used by the Czech Army as military ambulances. The Military Police and Czech Army Technical Institute in Vyškov approved the modified cars for use as military vehicles.

The experience with the supercharged diesel oil engine has shown that the fuel consumption reaches about a half of the consumption in comparison with the traditional Russian gasoline engines, while the Euro 3 emission limits are adhered to and the motor power performance improved. SIO p.l.c. is convinced that the replacement of a UAZ gasoline engine with the supercharged diesel oil engine will bring substantial financial savings in operation and repair costs to the users, which in case of the Czech Army is also a way of reducing costs of training, maintenance and repair of the fleet. According to long-term experiences with UMZ engines, the average fuel consumption of a UAZ 469 reaches 20 litres gasoline per 100 kms with the UAZ 452 fuel consumption being even higher.

In a similar move, SIO p.l.c. is resolved to address the issue of quality of original gearboxes and additional gearboxes. A cooperation with a traditional gearbox manufacturer from Prague, PRAGA Engineering, Inc., commenced in February 2002. At present, the first type of a new gearbox for UAZ vehicles is subject to trial testing.