Ural: History of the Plant, Its 6×6 Trucks and Today's Range

Ural at a glance

UralAZ is a heavy-truck maker that specialises in all-wheel-drive trucks for poor roads and off-road work. Its name comes from the Ural region, where the plant was established. Key facts as of October 2026:

Ural sidecar motorcycles, sometimes confused with the trucks, are made by a different company and are a separate product.

From ZIS branch to UralZIS (1941–1944)

The Ural plant began as an offshoot of ZIS, the truck maker later renamed ZIL. In 1941 the authorities decided to relocate part of the ZIS truck production to the Ural region and set it up there as a separate works, UralZIS. The 5 July 1939 date sometimes quoted is not supported by the sources.

The new plant made components before it made trucks. Its first engines and gearboxes came off the line in April 1942. The first truck completed entirely at UralZIS, a ZIS-5V, followed on 8 July 1944. The ZIS-5V was a simplified ZIS-5 4×2 truck, and the plant kept building that family for well over a decade.

Ural through the decades

Ural history falls into six periods, each defined by a main model or a change of owner.

1944–1960: UralZIS road trucks

For its first 15 years the plant built conventional rear-wheel-drive road trucks derived from ZIS designs. More than 200,000 ZIS-5V, UralZIS-5 and UralZIS-355 trucks were built up to 1958. The UralZIS-355 of 1956–1958 led to the improved UralZIS-355M, built from 1957/58 to 1965 with slightly more than 192,000 produced. The 355M was a 4×2 road truck, not the plant's first off-road model.

1961–1976: the Ural-375 and the first civilian 6×6 trucks

The Ural-375 turned UralAZ into an all-wheel-drive specialist. Its development started in 1953 to a government specification for an off-road truck, as part of a family of designs prepared with the NAMI research institute, and testing ran until 1958. Series production began in November 1960, and the first ten trucks left the plant on 31 January 1961. The following year, in 1962, UralZIS was renamed UralAZ.

The early Ural-375 had a canvas-topped cab; the Ural-375D of 1964 brought an all-steel cab and became the most-produced version. Civilian operators in oil and gas, forestry, geology, agriculture and the fire services used the truck widely. Dedicated civilian models followed: the Ural-377, a 6×4 truck with a 7.5-tonne (16,535 lb) payload built from 1965 to 1983, often painted in a factory orange for work in remote regions, and civilian versions of the 375 labelled 375N from 1974. Exports went first to Mongolia and later to East Germany, where official imports are dated to 1969. Production of the 375 family ran into the early 1990s, about 30 years in total.

1977–1991: the diesel Ural-4320

The Ural-4320 was essentially the 375 converted to diesel power. Planning began in 1969, when the new KamAZ engine plant was being designed, and in 1970 a diesel prototype was built in a Ural-375D. The ministry approved series production on 31 December 1975. The first five production trucks were completed in December 1977, 25 by the end of that year and about 100 in 1978, according to the German-language references; a French-language reference dates the start of production to 1976.

The Ural-4320 became the plant's main product and the basis for a large family of civilian trucks. By 1990 annual output stood at about 31,500 vehicles. The millionth Ural vehicle was built in the mid-1980s; sources give either 21 February 1986 or 1987.

1992–2004: Iveco, Deutz and a difficult decade

The 1990s brought foreign partners and a sharp fall in sales. Cooperation with Iveco started in 1992 and led to the Iveco-UralAZ joint venture in late 1994, which assembled Iveco-designed trucks. A second joint venture, with Deutz for engines, followed in 1997, and from the mid-1990s Ural trucks gained Iveco-style cabs and headlamps set into the bumper.

Two setbacks hit production. In spring 1993 a fire at the KamAZ engine plant cut the supply of diesel engines, which kept the older petrol 375 in production for longer. In 1998 sales reportedly fell to 2,489 chassis and the plant went through bankruptcy proceedings. In 2001 UralAZ was brought into the RusPromAvto automotive holding.

2005–2018: the GAZ Group years

In 2005 UralAZ became part of GAZ Group, the holding built around the GAZ vehicle plant. New models appeared in this period, among them the Ural-63685 6×4 road tipper from 2005 and the Ural-6370 from 2011. The modernised Ural Next, successor to the 4320, entered production in 2015.

Since 2019: an independent truck maker

The latest change of ownership is the least documented. German-language encyclopedia sources say GAZ Group sold the plant at the end of 2018 and that it has operated independently since, but name no buyer, so the date is best read as reported. The Ural Next family remains the core of the range.

Ural timeline

Landmark Ural trucks

Nine models mark the main steps in the brand's development, from the UralZIS road trucks to the current Next.

Engineering firsts: 6×6 drive and the switch to diesel

UralAZ has no verified motorsport record; its engineering reputation rests on two decisions. The first was the 6×6 layout of the Ural-375, with drive to all three axles through a five-speed manual gearbox and a two-speed transfer case. Power came from the 7.0-litre (427 cu in) ZIL-375 V8 petrol engine with a carburettor, rated at 130–132 kW (180 PS).

The second decision was the move to diesel. The Ural-4320 kept the 6×6 chassis but used the 10.85-litre (662 cu in) KamAZ-740.10 V8 diesel, rated at 154–156 kW (210 PS). Later versions used YaMZ engines: the 11.15-litre (680 cu in) YaMZ-236 V6 at 132–176 kW (180–240 PS) and the 14.86-litre (907 cu in) YaMZ-238 V8 at 177 kW (240 PS). The base 4320 carries 5,000 kg (11,023 lb); its permissible gross mass is quoted differently, as 13,425 kg (29,597 lb) or 15,300 kg (33,731 lb). The Ural Next is listed in this site's catalogue with the 6.7-litre (409 cu in) YaMZ-536 diesel.

Ownership, joint ventures and capacity

The ownership chain is clear up to 2005 and less certain afterwards. The table separates owners from partners.

Iveco was a partner, not an owner: later reports of an Iveco majority stake concern the joint venture, not UralAZ itself. From 1994 the plant's capacity is given as up to 3,000 trucks and 9,000 cabs a year, and in 1999 its foundry could produce 2,400 tonnes (2,646 US tons) of castings a year.

Ural trucks in civilian work

Most Ural derivatives were built for civilian jobs in places with few paved roads. The 4320 platform alone produced the Ural-43203 agricultural truck (from 1978 to 2005), the Ural-43204 timber truck (in series from 1989) and the Ural-5557 tipper (from 1984). Other bodies included the Ural-4420 flatbed with a hydraulic crane, the ATZ-5-4320 fuel tanker and fire appliances on the 4×4 Ural-43206 chassis, which appeared in 1996.

The Ural-3255 took the idea further as an off-road bus chassis for carrying work crews where ordinary buses cannot go. The Ural catalogue lists each model with its own specification tables.

Current Ural line-up

The main model families, with years as given in the sources:

Ural in numbers

Few Ural production figures are confirmed by more than one source; these are the most cited:

• over 200,000 ZIS-5V, UralZIS-5 and UralZIS-355 trucks built up to 1958;
• slightly more than 192,000 UralZIS-355M trucks from 1957/58 to 1965;
• about one million vehicles by the mid-1980s (1986 or 1987);
• about 31,500 vehicles built in 1990;
• a payload of 4,800 kg (10,582 lb) for the Ural-375 and 5,000 kg (11,023 lb) for the base Ural-4320.