Many good questions, some addressed by sawyer99.
Let's go one by one.
why are these tractors called Kirovet when the the name on the hood and brochures seem to use different names. Around here they all seemed to be named Balarus.
Those tractors were made for the last 60+ years at the "Kirovets" factory in St Petersburg, Russia.
For marketing purpose, all USSR made tractors were marketed under the same "Belarus" brand.
When you say a hundred thousand tractors do you mean every tractor this company built all the way from the smallest to the largest? That would have a huge effect on parts and service availability as I bet smaller models outnumber these a hundred to one.
Kirovets factory is making only the large articulated 4WD (roughly 300-550 hp). Over 500,000 units were made so far, about 100,000 are still running. Current production stands at about 2,000 units / year, and rising.
If I had to guess, this is the highest production large tractor, or for sure in top 3.
When a customer is considering future support, those numbers are critical. There is strength in numbers. With a large installed base, and more coming into the market, you can be guaranteed of continuous supply down the road, either through the factory and/or from 3rd party sources.
With small volume models, a customer is at the sole mercy of the manufacturer, since there is no economic incentive for 3rd party supplier to invest in low demand parts.
How are they getting away with tier three emissions? Surplus engines? Why are they allowed tier three when everybody else must be tier four?
EPA (Environment Protection Agency, USA) , as well as Canadian Environment Agency are running "low volume exemption program" for Tier 3, valid until 2017/2018.
Most major manufacturers run down their quota long time ago. MTZ still has quota available, but then the tractors will switch to Tier 4 , like everyone else.
So the window of opportunity for the simpler Tier 3 engines is fairly narrow.
Isn't Kirovet in bed with Versatile somehow?
No relations. If anything, they are competitors.
ROSSELMASH is the largest Russian combines manufacturer. They purchased Versatile few years ago. They market Versatile in Russia to compete with Kirovets (not much success). And they market Russian combines under Versatile brand in USA/Canada.
By the way, from independent forums that I read, those are good combines.
How is the recent political climate between Russia and the rest of the world going to affect getting parts and service for this equipment?
If we look back, Belarus / Kirovets tractors and parts were imported to USA/Canada for over 50 years. And even during the cold war, Afghanistan invasion and all other crises parts and tractors were still available. So it's safe to assume that parts availability will still be there, either directly from Russia, or through Canada, Germany, Ukraine or any of the other 50+ countries using the Kirovets.
I'm not dissing this tractor, it might be the best ever built but just wondering how they plan to prevent this machine turning into a 200,000 dollar lump of steel sitting on the edge of a field because you can't get parts.
Again , looking back, there are still dozens of Kirovets running in USA/Canada, and they are 20-30 years old. I guess that's the best proof a company can provide about parts availability.