Aurus will assemble such machines at the plant in Yelabuga
According to the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, Russia will soon begin to produce relatively affordable cars in the format of sedans of classes E (the size of a Toyota Camry) and S (something like a Mercedes-Benz S-class) . Editor-in-Chief «Behind the wheel» Maxim Kadakov revealed the details of the implementation of this project.
According to him, the project is being worked on seriously. «Cheap Aurus» will be similar to the current Senat sedan except in name and some technical solutions. But in terms of their units and overall technical characteristics, the new Aurus will be fundamentally different.
The project is being developed by NAMI, but the cars will be produced at the plant in Yelabuga. According to Maxim Kadakov, one of the investors (and considerable funds are needed for development) will be Gazprom.
Maxim Kadakov expects the first pre-production prototypes by the end of 2025 with the caveat «if you run very quickly and don’t have problems with financing, components and means of production».
New cars of classes E (Toyota Camry, BMW 5 Series, Audi A6, Mercedes E-Class) and S (Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series, Genesis G90) will be much cheaper than Aurus Senat, but more expensive than «Moskvich 6» (which in the top now costs more than 3 million rubles) and «Lada Aura» (preliminary price – from 2.5 million rubles).
«I think the target level will be closer to 4 million rubles. In this situation, there will be no end to government customers. Well, an S-class car will be more expensive», – explained Maxim Kadakov. It is interesting that «parallel» Chinese Camry is now even more expensive – prices start from approximately 4.5 million rubles.