The North-American premiere of the UAZ Patriot SUV took place recently at the Los Angeles international Autosalon. The exclusive importer of the vehicle is Bremach Inc., a California company. The Russian car has its own name, Bremach 4×4. The name Taos, announced earlier, was rejected to avoid the conflict with Volkswagen, which has had a product with this name since 2020.
The Patriot was introduced in two versions–standard and off-road extreme. Both models are equipped with 2.7 gasoline engine ZMZ Pro of 149 hp and a six-gear automatic transmission Punch Powerglide 6L50, connected all-wheel drive. Standard version costs US$ 26,405 in USA.
According to Bremach, in the first 24 hours after the introduction, they received deposits totaling US$ 3.8 million. How many cars were ordered, was not disclosed, but the minimum deposit is US$ 100.
Bremach representatives emphasize that the UAZ Patriot is the first Russian car officially imported into the USA. It has the best price/quality ratio in the class of medium-size SUVs in USA. It also has a good warranty – 5 years or 60 000 miles, and 10 years/120,000 miles for transmission.
Bremach plans to arrange assembly of Patriots on its site in California from Russian kits. The company is also working on purchased V8 engine. First shipments of the vehicles to customers will start in 2022.
PSR Analysis: If everything goes well, UAZ could repeat the success story of the Russian Ural motorcycles. They are quite popular in the USA. However, they have almost disappeared from the Russian market. PSR
Maxim Sakov is Market Consultant – Russia Operations, for Power Systems Research
