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Russia's presidential limousine to be manufactured at Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant

The first prototypes will be ready in 2015, while the limousine itself is to be ready in late 2017 or early 2018

Ulyanovsk car manufacturing plant (archive) ITAR-TASS/Grigory sysoyev

Ulyanovsk car manufacturing plant (archive)

© ITAR-TASS/Grigory sysoyev

VORONEZH, February 9. /TASS/. The presidential state car and all other cars from Project Cortege of luxury cars for Russia’s elite will be manufactured at the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant in the Volga Federal District, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov told reporters on Monday.

Project Cortege, under which luxury cars for Russia’s elite should be designed and manufactured in Russia and by Russian companies, involves a limousine for state’s top officials, as well as business class escort vehicles (sedans, off-road vehicles and minibuses). The presidential state car "will be the safest in the world premium class vehicle", weighing about six tons, but "maneuverable and super powerful, with 800-horsepower engine," said Alexei Borovkov, the head of the engineering centre at St. Petersburg’s Polytechnic University.

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"As for production itself, it will be fully concentrated at the Ulyanovsk car manufacturing plant," Manturov said. Rosavto company marking part of the Rostec [state corporation promoting development, production and export of hi-tech industrial products for civil and defense sectors] will be partner in the project, responsible notably for future sales, while Porsche will be responsible for engineering input.

According to Borovkov, first prototypes will be ready in 2015, while the limousine itself is to be ready in late 2017 or early 2018. Designers are facing the task to design a modern platform body, whose components will be used in the future by all Russian carmakers.

Investment in the Cortege project in 2015-2016 will be eight billion roubles (121 million dollars).

Since 2000, the Ulyanovsk car plant makes part of Sollers, Russia’s leading car company, manufacturing up to 550,000 vehicles a year, including Russian off-road vehicles UAZ, Korean SsangYong vehicles and Japanese trucks ISUZU.

The plant in the Volga River city of Ulyanovsk produces more than 10 UAZ makes and about a hundred of their modifications, manufacturing 105,000 vehicles a year.

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