How Russia's Legendary Ural Motorcycle Plant Is Surviving

The Irbit Motorcycle Plant (IMZ), known worldwide for its Ural bikes, has faced new difficulties — at the end of last year, the enterprise stopped exporting the legendary classic models. To find out how and by what means the plant is surviving in such conditions, E1.RU correspondent Irina Porozova visited the production site.

The Irbit Motorcycle Plant was founded in November 1941. The first model was based on the BMW R71. After the Great Patriotic War, the task was set to increase motorcycle production fivefold — to 20,000 units annually. Since 1953, they have been exported. Maximum production reached 130,000 units per year.

In 1992, the plant was corporatized, after which it regularly changed owners and went bankrupt several times. In 2000, three top managers of the enterprise bought IMZ. Now, 96.4% is owned by the IMZ-Ural group, and 3.6% by Yekaterina Rumyantseva. According to Kontur.Focus, in 2024, the company«s revenue fell to 125 million rubles (approximately $1.25 million at current rates), with a net loss of 4 million rubles (approximately $40,000 at current rates).

Once, the Irbit Motorcycle Plant had a giant territory of 43 hectares, but now its entire site fits into one hangar. At the entrance, we are met by executive director Vladimir Kurmachev.

He begins the tour by explaining why the production of traditional Ural motorcycles was suspended. According to the manager, the situation was influenced by the escalating trade war between the USA and China, when both sides began raising customs duties on each other«s imported goods. The point is that motorcycles under the Ural brand are now assembled in China, and the United States is one of the countries where they are actively purchased.

«Since last year, when these tariff wars began in the world, we have suspended the assembly of traditional Urals for export: delivery turns out to be very expensive, and the cost of the motorcycle in Europe and America has become too high,» explained the executive director. «Therefore, today we only do assembly for the Russian market.»

But these are no longer the same volumes. Ural motorcycles for the Russian consumer have been made only to order for the last 25 years. It turns out to be only 50–60 units per year. Without sales on the external market, the enterprise is having a very hard time.

«We are 99% export-oriented, the Russian market collapsed in the late 90s. Only exports saved us, and to the most developed countries — these are North America, Europe, Australia, Japan, China, South Korea. These were our main buyers,» added Vladimir Kurmachev.

Nevertheless, the Irbit motorcycle plant does not intend to give up. After the assembly of the famous motorcycles was moved to Kazakhstan, they started making spare parts and body elements for motorcycles here. Now, there are only a few models available.

Also, under a contract with the Kaliningrad company Baltmotors, the enterprise«s employees assemble quad bikes under this brand (assembly was moved to the Urals about a year and a half ago due to logistics problems). On this line, 30 specialists work, assembling 180–200 machines per month.

In total, about 100 people work at the enterprise. The plant does not suffer from a shortage of personnel, but it lacks precisely qualified specialists, the management notes. The average salary here is only 40,000 rubles (approximately $400 at current rates). Along with men, several women also work on the assembly.

«They are reliable: they don»t drink, don«t smoke,» laughing, added the head of IMZ.

Moreover, the first samples of new bikes were brought to Irbit from China. The manufacturer, together with a foreign company on its site, is preparing the release of modern motorcycles with a sidecar Ural Neo 500, with which the Ural plant plans to resume exports.

«We have been cooperating with the company Yingang for over a year now. It produces motorcycles with sidecars, and our engineers are refining these models to meet the requirements of the Russian market. Now we are engaged in certification. Perhaps by the end of the first half — beginning of the second half, the first sales of motorcycles with sidecars will appear,» told the director of IMZ.

They plan to sell the novelty including in Japan and the USA.

Parallel to motorcycles with sidecars, soon another model under the Ural brand will appear on the market — a solo motorcycle. It does not yet have an official name, its cost is about 290,000 rubles (approximately $2,900 at current rates). The two-wheeled vehicle has already been certified, and in early February, the first specimens will appear on the Russian market.

Another novelty based on the Ural motorcycle will appear in Yekaterinburg during the «Movement» festival on July 5–7 this year. On one of its stages, right online, a bike will be assembled according to the model of second-year master«s student of UrGAKhU Yekaterina Pegushina, who won the »Iron Business« competition.

For the next six months, the student together with five of the best custom workshops in Russia will develop the technical part of the motorcycle, and on the last day of the festival, oil and gasoline will be poured into the bike, after which it will be started.

Among the lovers of Ural motorcycles were Brad Pitt and Vladimir Putin. Interestingly, in August 2025, the Russian president gifted such a bike to an American from Alaska. After that, IMZ released an exclusive line of Ural Alaska motorcycles. They were made in a very limited edition — only 10 units. Its starting price is 2 million rubles (approximately $20,000 at current rates).