The Russians fully showed Putin’s limousine in the new, it jumps straight from the baroque to the 21st century

The car underwent a surprisingly significant modernization, which, despite its premiere, we could not see in the hands of almost anyone other than Putin’s loyalists 6 years ago. The Aurus Senat got a new look and electronics, and to be honest, it doesn’t look bad.

It is a sign of a peculiarly functioning country if it begins to produce luxury cars of domestic provenance intended only for a select few, even though they appear to be available to everyone. But probably no one has any illusions about Russia in this regard. However, if someone doesn’t even know about the local car production, the Aurus car manufacturer can positively surprise them in this regard. Although the association “super-luxury Russian car” inspires more horror, the Senat model looks relevant from the first moment.

However, since 6 years have passed since its original premiere, it has not seemed completely modern, especially lately. Its certainly deliberately baroque design played on the chords of British classics such as Rolls-Royce or Bentley, and it seemed that thanks to this it would not age, but the opposite became true over time. At the beginning of the year, Aurus promised to facelift the key Senat model, and that – unsurprisingly – on the occasion of the inauguration of the old Russian president. He really managed it, as the first trailers showed, but we can properly imagine the car only after the official premiere.

As already mentioned yesterday, the facelift is really significant. In particular, the concept of the front has changed so much that the Russians could get away with labeling the car as a new generation. It jumps straight from the Baroque into the 21st century, replacing all classic curls with modern edges. How this will look in a few years, we have no idea, but now it really makes the impression of a modern car. Considering the situation the Russians are in today, this is undoubtedly a surprise.

Moreover, it is not only about design, but also about electronics. The main headlights now use matrix LED technology, which is still resisted even by BMW. From the profile, the car has not changed significantly, you can easily notice only the new wheels, the rear is unmistakably new, but not dramatically so. The same can be said about the cabin, which looks even more luxurious and has also received new electronics. Only time will tell how the NAMI MM infotainment system works, with a massive touch screen in the middle of the dash and a widely customizable dashboard, but again it looks modern and gives the car advanced features such as a night vision system.

In terms of drive, everything remains the same, although the Aurus has recently been bursting with technical ideas. The Senat will therefore continue to be powered by a hybrid unit combining a 4.4-liter eight-cylinder engine with an electric motor. It gives the car a power of up to 606 horsepower, which goes to all four wheels through a nine-speed automatic transmission. However, if someone were to be captivated by this car, they will probably be out of luck, unless their name is Putin, Medvedev or something similar.

The upgraded Aurus Senat is now available only to Russian elites, but the automaker promises that from 2025 it will finally start production in St. Petersburg for a wider audience. Well, it’s not promising for the first time, so we’d better wait and see what happens.

Aurus Senat 2024 is officially out. But available only to Putin et al., calling this car “Putin’s limousine” turned out to be more accurate than we once expected ourselves. Photo: Aurus

Source: Aurus

Peter Miller

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