Ural NEXT prototype

This is one of the first prototypes of the Ural NEXT was built in 2014.

The truck is a two-axle, bonneted flatbed with a double-row cab and a roll hoop behind the cab, and a spare tyre mounted behind the cab.

Its mock-up front end is clearly different from the production version of the Ural NEXT: the hood, fenders and grille are shaped in a grey, unpainted material, and the sculpted fenders and heavy steel bumper are unlike those of production trucks.

The plant did not publish a specification for this prototype, so its engine, gearbox, axles and payload are not known. The gear is likely to be a version of the Ural-M chassis with a new cab, since the whole project grew from the Ural-M chassis programme.

The Ural-M project reworked the Ural-4320 chassis with a new cab module and a hood with polymer body panels. The idea of fitting a GAZelle NEXT-based cab to the Ural-4320 chassis is attributed.

The production version of the Ural NEXT was premiered on 2 June 2015 at the Construction Equipment and Technologies (STT) exhibition in Moscow, with serial production and sales planned for the second half of 2015.

The prototype was later left outdoors at the plant and photographed there at the open day on 1 September 2019, among a group of experimental vehicles that included a 2011 Ural 432065 farm truck, the 2005 Ural 6464 tractor and the Ural 6×4 with a MAN TGS cab.