The St. Petersburg Romanov Plant (part of the Almaz-Antey Aerospace Defense Concern, formerly the MAN plant) will expand its line of BAZ civilian trucks. As Dmitry Grechukhin, the plant's general director, told TASS, the plant currently produces exclusively three-axle all-wheel drive 6×6 vehicles, but plans include a more compact two-axle 4×4 version. This will allow it to enter the segment of municipal, road, and medium-duty equipment.
The BAZ is based on a redesigned structure of military tractors from the Bryansk Automobile Plant. Grechukhin emphasized that not individual components, but entire engineering solutions adapted for civilian tasks, were borrowed. The key element is the independent spring suspension of all wheels: according to experts, there are no direct serial analogues from other Russian manufacturers. In addition, inter-axle and wheel reducers, as well as transport axles, were transferred from military equipment. The vehicles are equipped with a 367-hp YaMZ-653.1 diesel engine and a 9-speed YaMZ-1909 manual gearbox.
The current 6×6 lineup includes dump trucks (including the newest S32A51 with a gross weight of 36 tons), S34A10 and S35A10 semi-trailer tractors, flatbed trucks, and special equipment – for example, a 24-seat crew bus.
According to Grechukhin, BAZ does not compete with KamAZ and Ural, but occupies the niche of premium all-wheel drive off-road trucks, which became vacant after the departure of the "Big Seven" (Mercedes, Volvo, Scania, MAN, DAF, Iveco, Renault Trucks). The head of the plant named the Czech Tatra as the closest ideological analogue. Following operational tests, 1340 changes have already been made to the design of the first vehicles – from suspension components to transmission elements.
Read more on the topic:
- Made in St. Petersburg: The first BAZ trucks have already rolled off the assembly line
- BAZ truck serial production scheduled to begin in December 2025