Meet the Aurus Komendant, Russia’s answer to the Bentayga and Cullinan

Did you know Russia had a homegrown luxury car company, called Aurus? It’s a brand developed by the Central Scientific Research Automobile and Automotive Engines Institute (the acronym is NAMI in Russian), a descendent of a Soviet-era outfit that developed the country’s first indigenous Soviet cars after the revolution. Later on, it developed and produced engines and transmissions for the centralized economy’s other brands. And now, it’s producing a luxurious large SUV in a mainly capitalist Russian Federation, a follow-on to the Putin-approved Aurus Senat limousine and the Arsenal van. A car for the workers, this is not.

A version of the Senat, for the record, is Putin’s presidential state car – an armored limousine that caters to local tastes. It’s not quite as outrageous as some other regional offerings, like whatever Dartz is making right now and the Kombat Armouring T-98 Kombat armored urban vehicle. But it should be considerably more opulent.

What Aurus offers to people not named Putin is a little different than the state car, as you’d expect. It’s shorter, for one, and likely doesn’t have as many protection and defense features. We last reported it started at roughly $274,000. We would expect the Komendant, pictured here, to follow the Senat’s lead.

That means the NAMI-developed, twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 should be present, making about 600 horsepower. We hear a V12 and even a 2.2-liter inline-four may eventually come to the Senat, but perhaps not to the Komendant. We expect the SUV to make its debut at the 2020 Moscow Auto Show, which takes place in August, with sales to follow sometime in 2021.

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