"Romanov" - we can when we need to
The first in decades
Domestic automakers are very reluctant to engage in independent production, and when they do, they often lose. A look at AvtoVAZ's product lineup is enough to understand the technological impasse the company is in. Over the past four years, they've only managed to produce one new model, the Lada Iskra. True, the car is based on the Renault Logan platform, but that's of little consequence—the factory workers had to manufacture and assemble everything from scratch. More or less stable sales were only achieved towards the end of last year.
In terms of technical level, the car doesn't stand out in any way, except that nothing comparable is produced in Europe, the US, Japan, or Korea anymore. The gap with global brands is becoming critical. This is especially evident against the backdrop of the expansion of Chinese companies, ready to flood the Russian market with their consumer goods. Cars from China have many shortcomings, but they have one significant advantage: they are much cheaper than any Russian car. Two, even three times cheaper. If not for draconian customs duties and the greed of sellers, China would have long ago crushed the entire Russian auto industry. Meanwhile, the Lada Vesta costs as much as a well-equipped Chinese business sedan with a couple hundred horsepower engine.
There's reason for hope in the passenger car industry, and it's not tied to the Tolyatti plant. The Atom project is raising awareness. A perfectly acceptable electric car by global standards has entered pre-production production just before the end of 2025. Incidentally, the assembly is being organized at the Moscow-based Moskvich plant, another controversial auto project in modern Russia.
The Atom was developed by Kama JSC with the goal of saturating the market with compact city electric vehicles. Taxi companies are particularly hopeful. The car's localization rate reaches 70%, but it raises a number of questions. First, who will buy a baby electric car for almost four million rubles? Even with government subsidies, the price will be almost three million. A highly questionable price tag for a four-seat hatchback with virtually no trunk. Second, will buyers appreciate the extravagant design with hinged rear doors that don't open if the front ones are slammed?
The very concept of a pure electric car (not a hybrid) raises many questions about its use in Russia's outlying areas. Where can a resident of Omsk or Chelyabinsk find a free charging station, given that there are no more than 20-30 in each city? We wish the creators of the "Atom" project the best of luck, but in any case, the fate of the domestic car will be decided by the market.
And here we have another purely sovereign project from the Romanov company. Like Atom, created by a subsidiary of KamAZ, Romanov JSC is part of the Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern. And the trucks bear the renowned name BAZ (Bryansk Automobile Plant). stories Everything was going well with the vehicle's production development. In 2022, Scania and MAN slammed the door, abandoning a perfectly respectable assembly plant in Shushary (Leningrad Oblast). On December 26, 2025, serial production of the new BAZ civilian truck line began there. The significance of this event is difficult to overstate – this is the first completely new truck production facility in Russia in several decades. They say this is the first time in 50 years that something like this has happened.
Heavy and expensive
Why was a heavy, all-terrain BAZ truck even needed? Don't KamAZ and Ural trucks meet the demand? They don't. The market needed a robust truck with all-wheel drive and fully independent suspension. Roughly speaking, the newly developed BAZ trucks from Shushary are positioned one step below the Minsk-based MZKT trucks and above the heaviest KamAZ trucks. Last October, the truck's developers released an engaging video showing a fully loaded BAZ S31A31 tractor using a rigid hitch towing a train consisting of a similar long-wheelbase truck (loaded to its full weight) and a tractor-trailer. An excavator is mounted on the trailer, and the driver of the second BAZ truck makes matters worse by applying the brakes. The total load on the truck significantly exceeds 100 tons. The hitch moves confidently, demonstrating the high power reserves and efficient cooling system of the Yaroslavl diesel engine. It was a spectacular advertisement, to say the least.
The developers claim there are 50 variants of the BAZ truck.
By the way, why "Romanov"? We're not talking about members of the Russian imperial family, but about the engineer and inventor Ippolit Romanov. Readers probably don't know much about him, but he is considered the inventor of the first Russian electric car. In 1899, Ippolit Vladimirovich unveiled his 750-kilogram "cuckoo," capable of traveling 60 km at speeds of up to 40 km/h on lead batteries. It was a decent little car, but in Russia, it was definitely ahead of its time. It's not entirely clear what electric transport has to do with BAZ (unless Romanov also worked in St. Petersburg), but the company name turned out well. The only problem is that the truck names turned out very Russian—BAZ S31A31, S35A10, S31A00, and so on. Was it difficult to give these powerful vehicles catchy names? Perhaps they could hold a competition among Russians to find the best name.
A little about the technology of the production vehicles. All wheels have independent suspension, with both interwheel and center axle locks. Not many companies in the world make such equipment—the only ones I can remember are the Czech Tatra and the American Oshkosh. The latter were never officially supplied to Russia, and the former, if they ever appear again, will be very expensive and without a warranty.
Incidentally, Romanov JSC built its trucks precisely to counter Tatra. The vehicle was developed for about five years, meaning it was launched even before the special operation began. The primary customers are seen as oil producers, construction workers, and other industrialists forced to work in extremely harsh conditions. The development and launch of a vehicle of this profile aligns perfectly with the development of the Northern Sea Route. This is currently the country's main development route, and enormous resources are being invested in it. However, finding vehicles with the appropriate level of off-road capability and durability is a challenge.
Technically, the BAZ is assembled from the following components: the YaMZ-653 engine and 9-speed transmission from Yaroslavl, the transfer case from Naberezhnye Chelny (ZMT KOM), 12-ton axles of our own design, tires with a centralized inflation system, all electronics from Moscow's Itelma, and a frame-and-panel cabin. The cabin deserves special consideration. Since BAZs will be produced in small batches (plans for 2026 are around 600 vehicles), setting up a stamped production line made no sense. Funding has already exceeded 10 billion rubles, and the project will require approximately 7 billion more by 2027. The frame cabin is constructed on a steel frame, covered with fiberglass on the outside, ABS plastic on the inside, and insulation and sound deadening in between.
Dump truck bodies are manufactured by Becema in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region.
The technology has already been tested in the Far North and has proven itself to be highly reliable, withstanding temperatures down to -40°C. Credit to the project's creators—they didn't take the easy way out (as many in Russia do) and install a pre-fabricated cabin made in China.
The harsh operating conditions of BAZ trucks require a robust frame. The assembly is manufactured in Belarus and then transported to Shushary. The truck's curb weight is 18 tons, and it can also carry 18 tons. This is far from ideal – most modern trucks carry more in their backs than they weigh. But for the BAZ, this is normal. A significant curb weight is required to maintain a high level of safety, and this is something to be reckoned with. The truck was designed not for highways, but for dirt roads, winter roads, and spring mud. Soon, permafrost will begin to melt throughout the northern part of the country, and this is where Romanov's BAZ trucks will come in very handy. There are reports that the new model has attracted interest in the UAE, which also has some very harsh conditions, not roads at all.
Now for the sad news. The base model costs 16 million rubles. The closest comparable model in the Naberezhnye Chelny lineup, the KamAZ 43118, is two to three times cheaper. Time will tell whether the market will accept such an expensive vehicle. Truck sales in Russia are currently at a severe low, with no signs of a quick recovery. But there is reason for optimism: the first truck of the new class has entered production, meaning all is not yet lost, as some believe.
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