The long-anticipated serial production of Aurus cars, the same domestic brand which made a limousine for Russian President Vladimir Putin, is set to start at the beginning of 2021.
The news was announced by the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry on Friday, after Trade Minister Denis Manturov visited the Ford Sollers plant in the special economic zone of Alabuga, Tatarstan Republic, where the high-end vehicles will be assembled.
After several pilot Aurus cars roll off the production line in 2020, some 360 cars are expected to be produced in the first quarter of 2021. By 2022, the plant’s production capacity is set to surge nearly fivefold to more than 1,700 vehicles. The plan is to eventually manufacture more than 5,200 cars per year in 2024.
“Robot systems [of the plant] allow it to perform technically complex works,” the Industry and Trade Ministry said in a statement. “We will use digital production technologies... as well as unmanned and augmented reality technologies.”
The new Russian-made cars, part of a project dubbed ‘Kortezh’, debuted during Putin’s inauguration in May 2017, when a limousine of the line was finally unveiled. Initially designated for top Russian officials, it was then decided the car would be made available to the general public in both foreign and domestic markets.
Despite it being more than a year away from the launch of mass production, more than 600 pre-orders have been made for the Russian luxury cars.
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