The motorcycle was modeled on the BMW R71 that Nazi Germany supplied to the Soviet Union after the two countries signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939.
With the increase in production in Moscow, the Moscow Motorcycle Plant was established, producing hundreds of M-72 motorcycles with a sidecar. After the German attack on the Soviet Union, the decision was made to move the motorcycle factory east, out of bombardment, to the resource-rich Ural Mountains. The IMZ factory survived the war there as well.
After World War II, the factory was expanded and in 1950 the 30,000th motorcycle was produced.
URAL motorcycle export history began in 1953. In the years 1973–1979 Ural was one of the brands sold by SATRA in Great Britain under the name "Kozak".
Currently, URAL motorcycles have four-stroke, air-cooled, flat twin (from 2014) fuel-injected engines, a four-speed gearbox with reverse, a dry double-plate clutch, spring shock absorbers and (from 2014) disc brakes on all three wheels.
Motorcycles are mainly exported to Australia, UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Germany, Egypt, Iran, South Africa, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and the United States. The number of units sold since the establishment of the factory exceeds 3.2 million.
IMZ-Ural is the only Russian manufacturer of high-capacity motorcycles and one of the few manufacturers of motorcycles with a sidecar in the world.
From August 2018, the plant switched to the production of motorcycles according to the Euro-5 standard.
In May 2020, an electric version of the Ural motorcycle was presented in the United States.