Legendary Ural Motorcycle Plant Struggles to Survive in the Urals

The Irbit Motorcycle Plant, globally known for its Ural bikes, has faced new difficulties — at the end of last year, the enterprise stopped exporting its legendary classic models. To find out how and by what means the plant survives under such conditions, correspondent Irina Porozova from Yekaterinburg«s E1.RU 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. From 1953, they began exporting. Maximum production reached 130,000 units per year.

In 1992, the plant was incorporated, after which it regularly changed owners and went bankrupt several times. In 2000, three top managers of the enterprise bought IMZ. Now, 96.4% belongs to the IMZ-Ural group, and 3.6% — to Yekaterina Rumyantseva. According to Kontur.Fokus, in 2024, the company«s revenue fell to 125 million rubles (approximately $1.3 million at current rates), with a net loss of 4 million rubles (about $42,100).

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 production of traditional Ural motorcycles was suspended. According to the manager, the situation was influenced by the escalating trade war between the US and China, when both sides began raising import duties on each other«s goods. The fact 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 bought.

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

But these are not the same volumes. Ural motorcycles for the Russian consumer have been made only to order for the last 25 years. This results in only 50–60 units per year. Without sales on the external market, the enterprise is having a very hard time.

«We are a 99% export-oriented enterprise; the Russian market collapsed in the late 1990s. Only exports saved us, and to the most developed countries — this is 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 began making spare parts and body elements for motorcycles here. Now, only a few models are available.

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

In total, about 100 people work at the enterprise. The plant does not suffer from a staff shortage, but it lacks qualified specialists, the management notes. The average salary here is only 40,000 rubles (about $421). Alongside men, several women work on the assembly line.

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

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

«For more than a year, we have been cooperating with the company Yingang. It produces motorcycles with sidecars, and our engineers are refining these models to meet the requirements of the Russian market. Now we are dealing with certification. Possibly, by the end of the first half — beginning of the second half, the first sales of motorcycles with sidecars will appear,» said the director of IMZ.

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

Parallel to the motorcycles with sidecars, another model under the Ural brand will soon appear on the market — a solo motorcycle. It does not yet have an official name, its cost is about 290,000 rubles (approximately $3,100). The two-wheeled vehicle has already received certification, and in early February, the first units will appear on the Russian market.

Another novelty based on the Ural motorcycle will appear in Yekaterinburg during the Dvizhenie festival (a music and culture event) on July 5–7 this year. On one of its stages, directly online, a bike will be assembled according to the layout of second-year master«s student Yekaterina Pegushina from UrGAKhU, who won the Iron Delo competition.

For the next six months, the student together with five of Russia«s best custom workshops 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 (about $21,100).