yes, it will be coming at some point, and appears to have some inspirations from the fiat 500 and 600. there was also a picture of the engine shown a while ago, it appears to be based off a VW beetle's engine: a lot more has been discussed in the update speculation thread: https://www.beamng.com/threads/update-speculation-thread.20246/
We don't know whether it is Italian (Germany, Yugoslavia and the USSR were a few other guesses), and it looks more lkke a 600.
Germany only, really. I doubt they'd prioritize countries that actually built the real life equivalent of this vehicle under license... And development of the Italy map coming to a conclusion + lack of suitable vehicles for european maps (right now it's only the three ETKs, and the large rural areas rule out the two modern ones too) strongly hints at it being italian after all.
Indeed, hence I doubt a blatant 600-clone with a Beetle engine would ever serve as the inspiration for a russian car in Beam...
And why would they? A semi-obscure russian car that saved a few quirks, in its first iteration was a generic rear engined citycar strongly influenced by the original 600, against much more urgent and exploitable (and better known) vehicular concepts? Looking like a 600, no less, with Italy map just around the corner? I think you're reading too much into this to be honest.
The Beetle is far better known than the 600,and we all know your opinion on that. The ZAZ-965, Fiat/Seat 600 and Zastava 750 are mainly known in their homelands, and thr former USSR houses more people than Italy, Spain, and former Yugoslavia. And the Zaporozhetz also looks like a 600, and has four aircooled cylinders in the back (although a V4). And it isn't Russian, but Ukrainian.
Blame BeamNG artists who chose to give those looks to the vehicle that will probably debut with the Italy map... And the original 600 is still better known - worldwide - than its licensed derivatives or some obscure Eastern Block copies. If even ZAZ declaredly copied the 600 while developing their 965, it must have been well known... And I still can't see the point in an Ukrainian car in Beam when they could go for better known alternatives (Italian, or German at best) which would also happen to be more suitable for their upcoming map.
Blame? Now it's wrong to mix the VW engine in? They're of similar obscurity, with maybe some of the 500 fame trickling down to the 600. They don't need to rely on meme cars. For example, we got a 70s midsize coupe first instead of a 60s muscle one, or we have an 80s US mundanemobile, or we don't have a modern hypercar. If you want famous cars, go play Forza. We had a JDM car for Utah.
In US spec. With plenty of other cars suitable for Utah already in game... Getting an Ukrainian car that was never exported to the West, though, with the Italy around the corner, is the very definition of something that makes zero sense. I don't like assumptions, so I'm very open to last minute retractions - I can totally see it actually launching as a german car, and NSU also built the 600 under licence after all, but what's the point, with 3 german cars already in game? - but I think you're stretching it beyond any possible imagination...
US like a metric speedo? Or LHD? Since we have JDM cars with no JDM maps, and many USDM cars with a German map... Having a different fourth? Suggesting a 600-like 4-cylinder aircooled RR car is like a 600-like 4-cylinder aircooled RR car?
Fine. Case closed then. The AB car is EXACTLY what it looks like: a ZAZ 965 lookalike. The 965 is air-cooled already, so they chose to put a VW flat four in the back of it in order to drive us insane! Go ahead and edit the wiki! I still think it's an italian-made 600 clone to go - so well - with the upcoming Italy map that also happens to serve as the guinea pig for the first air-cooled engine in the game. So they mixed up some VW elements in it. One of the two scenarios is borderline obvious, while the other sounds like a way to stir up an otherwise baseless speculation. Draw your own conclusions.
Pfff, oh come on, obscure cars is what I like best! If you want more 'well-known' cars, play Forza or something like that...
No, but one is a lot more likely than the other. If we take the Eastern Block car seriously, then it could be literally anything... even a french car, or the first post-war vehicle by Ibishu (or Hirochi). And a japanese minicar in my opinion is more plausible than a ZAZ clone... --- Post updated --- Beam has no real life cars, but cars developed around archetypes. And... Let's be honest here, the only archetype the ZAZ embodies is the "cheap Eastern-Block rip-off of a famous western car". No reason to have an ukrainian car in game over a car that represents such a succesful vehicular concept that it was built under license pretty much by anybody (in Spain, France, Germany, Yugoslavia, Argentina, and from there exported, too), and was also the inspiration of said ukrainian car. It would be like getting the old Pessima under a chinese brand instead, production spanning over two decades with countless facelifts... Somehow I don't see it happening, not before more urgent archetypes are covered, at least.