The Aurus SUV is a strange apparition (that's a ghost joke) on the automotive landscape. However, given the popularity of luxury 4x4s, it was only a matter of time before the Rolls-Royce Cullinan got copied.
"Copied" may be a harsh word in this situation. the Komendant is no clone of the Cullinan. It kind of looks a bit like the London cab too. We also expected the Chinese to be the ones with the tracing paper, but we are dealing with a Russian project here.
For most people, this story is completely irrelevant. The Komendant is a big-engined vehicle that will probably never comply with European emissions regulations. And the chances of Kim K buying one to roll down Rodeo Drive in are slim.
Still, there's an Aurus Senat in Switzerland right now, so maybe you can drive this SUV on some kind of diplomatic license. If it's good enough for Putin...
Aurus makes another car, an uber-luxury sedan, and because we were so entertained by its features, we decided to share this pair of renderings by the website Kolesa. They accurately depict what was under the camouflage when the SUV was recently spotted in Scandinavia, undergoing winter testing. As you can probably tell, it's got Bentayga hints as well.
And while Bentley's SUV is pussyfooting around with an available plug-in V6 engine, the Komendant will strut its stuff. Under the hood is a 600 horsepower 4.4-liter V8, probably matched to a 9-speed automatic from the sedan.
It's pretty big too, probably more than 5.5 meters long. Our sources say the presidential SUV should come out at the end of this year and go on sale in 2022. You should be able to buy an armored version too, that is if you're able to afford it.
The Aurus Senat sedan is going on sale this from an equivalent of $160,000. Naturally, the version that can get shot at is at least double that. Check out the Swiss one we talked about in the video below.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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