How come Rolls-Royce still can sell car in Russia? No sanction?

Aurus: sales collapse and... billions of dollars in injections! Who buys Auruses, except for "Avtobaza No. 2"?..

We haven't addressed the Aurus topic for at least six months : the Russian luxury brand, which never reached production volumes, fell out of the focus of the general reader. Meanwhile, according to our information, in the near future one interesting informational occasion may be officially announced for this project - just on the production line, which means it's high time to "update the status" and sum up the results of the first half of 2025. 

Let us recall that at the end of 2024, the brand set a record: on average, 9.5 cars were sold per month. It seemed that there would only be steady growth, and the beginning of the year was really good, but then there was a slump. Let us list Aurus sales by month, so that the picture is clearer: in January, 39 cars found their buyers - this became a record in the entire history of the brand, 20 Aurus were sold in February, 29 in March, 25 in April, only 8 in May, and only 5 in June. Thus, from January to June, 126 executive cars found their buyers. If you look at it by half-year, this is a record, but the May-June trend cannot but be alarming. Are the managers planning to remove the brand in its current form from the commercial sales field, leaving only the assembly at NAMI, where they mainly manufacture special-edition models, and repurposing the site in Alabuga (Aurus LLC), where they planned to produce five thousand Komendants  alone ?

Apparently, there is no talk of closing the project yet: we rely not only on the information we have, but also on the shake-up of the list of founders of Aurus LLC, which has happened in the last few months, as well as on the sharp increase in the company's authorized capital. According to counterparty verification websites, in February 2025, the equivalent of the authorized capital of Aurus LLC increased from a modest 31,250 rubles to 7.46 billion rubles, and in March - already to 17.6 billion rubles! What is this - the purchase of new equipment? If so, for the production of what cars?.. Let us recall that the general director of Aurus LLC, Andrey Pankov, also manages Aurus Motors and Shushary-Auto, which is part of the NAMI perimeter. 

But let's get back to sales. There are still cars manufactured in 2023 in stock. As many as 18 of them were bought in the period from January to June. They were mostly produced by NAMI, but one example from Alabuga was also found. It is clear that most of them are limousines, but there are also seven Komendants. As for the cars manufactured in 2025, 55 of them were included in the statistics for the first half of the year: 7 Komendants and 48 limousines. In total, 18 Komendants and 108 Senats found their buyers from January to June . 

Traditionally, the bulk of sales came from legal entities: only three "physicals" decided to buy the Komendant, and two more - the Senat. However, what organizations buy luxury domestic limousines? Of course, the most high-profile buyer of Aurus in the first half of the year was Philipp Kirkorov Production LLC: the company's garage was replenished with one Senat. Interestingly, in 2022, the company got out of the losses of previous years, and in 2024 its profit reached 147 million rubles. Aurus became a worthy reward for hard work! 

As usual, the largest buyer of Auruses remains the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation: its structural division, Avtobaza No. 2, purchased 12 vehicles (all Senats), another division, Avtotransportny Kombinat Rossiya, purchased 25 Senats, and yet another Avtotransportny Kombinat, a whopping 33 Senats. The second largest purchaser was the Federal Protective Service: its garage was replenished with 5 Komendants and 17 Senats. 

Gazprom also spares no expense in purchasing Auruses: eight Senats and one Commandant. 

One Commandant and one Senate were bought by a joint-stock company with the intricate name "Murmansel'd 2" from Murmansk: the company is engaged in fish processing and seafood canning. Last year, its net profit exceeded a billion, so it would be a sin not to drive cars "like Putin's". 

All other legal entities — buyers of Auruses — purchased no more than one car in the first half of the year. Let's list some of them, omitting leasing companies. The autonomous non-profit organization "Moscow Directorate of Transport Services" clearly lives beyond its means, because the acquired Komendant ate up a fair share of the profit for 2024 — it amounted to only 51 million rubles. Far Eastern "Avtovostok-2", which is engaged in the transportation of goods, earned more than one hundred million, but the management considered it necessary to purchase Komendant. Moscow company "Znak", more than half owned by the German "J. H. Tennes", did not earn even two hundred million rubles last year, but its director decided to acquire the Senate. The company manufactures products from base metals, paper and cardboard, and is also engaged in printing, while its customers include large government agencies and even the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The advertising agency Mayer Group, which only in June 2025 signed a contract with Rosmolodezh for 20 million rubles for "Provision of services for information and advertising support for events dedicated to Youth Day" and earned half a billion rubles last year, acquired one Senate. But the income of the logistics company Ran-Trans from St. Petersburg last year barely exceeded 20 million rubles, but the company scraped together enough for one Senate... The newborn company Tyers Hall was registered only at the end of January 2025, and in June - bam! - it registered the Senate, and a 2025 one at that. Another company - Uraltorg was formed back in 2007. It sells metalworking machines, though without much success: last year's profit was a modest 32 million rubles - apparently, all the money earned was spent on Komendant. 

KAMAZ did not stand aside either, which this year became one of the founders of Aurus LLC: the truck manufacturer also bought one Senat, although its business is going badly - in the first quarter, KAMAZ's loss under RAS amounted to 12.46 billion rubles. But money was found for one Komendant, albeit a 2024 model... In general, we will continue to follow the events around the Russian Aurus project. We hope that the sharp increase in the authorized capital will benefit it and the top management will be able to overcome the sales failure that occurred at the end of the first half of the year.

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the shape proportion looks like a fake rolls royce