The Lviv Automobile Factory ( ua, Львівський автомобільний завод), mostly known under its obsolete name ''L’vivs’ky Avtobusnyi Zavod'' ( uk, Львівський автобусний завод, literally ''"Lviv Bus Factory"'') was a bus manufacturing company in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

. Their

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

-name is LAZ (ЛАЗ), and the company and its products are often referred to with this acronym rather than the full name. It was one of the major bus manufacturers in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and the largest-ever industrial company in the city of Lviv. The factory is held by a private holding company.

History

The Lviv Bus Plant LAZ was built in 1945 to produce ZIS buses for the USSR. As an idea came about to create a whole new bus, the LAZ 695 bus was designed and approved by the

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Ministry of Transport. Production was launched in 1956 and continued until 2006. This is the most successful bus in the world and holds a world record for the longest in production. During the 1970s many new models were created such as the LAZ 699 and 697 which are both coach buses. In 1967, LAZ won the best bus in Europe at the Brussels auto show. LAZ was the first ever to create the low floor bus in 1963 called the LAZ 360 designed by Nami USSR. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, LAZ suffered a big meltdown economically due to the loss of funding. Production stopped due to no orders. After the economy started to pick up, LAZ started to produce buses again. The LAZ 52523 was created. In 2001, LAZ was sold to Russian business tycoon

Igor Churkin Igor may refer to: People * Igor (given name), an East Slavic given name and a list of people with the name * Mighty Igor (1931–2002), former American professional wrestler * Igor Volkoff, a professional wrestler from NWA All-Star Wrestlin ...

. After the sale of the company, the whole line of production was re-engineered to produce new buses for a low price. LAZ used a system called "flexible assembly line" which means that many different models could be produced on the same line because LAZ buses were all hand assembled. Some of its most widely known products included the LAZ-695 city bus and its stretched tourist-oriented version, the LAZ-699. ElectroLAZ, the distinctive modern LAZ

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

, can be seen circulating in over 25 cities around the world. LAZ provided transportation for the

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

championship that was held in Ukraine and Poland in 2012. The Ukraine government signed a contract to purchase 2500 new "CityLAZ" buses along with a possible 800 more. After the championship, LAZ buses were used as regular city transportation in the cities hosting EURO 2012. In 2012, three new models were introduced: The LAZ 695 Soyuz, the LAZ 4207 DM, and the LAZ A183 CNG.

Facilities

LAZ Holding has two factories located in Ukraine. LAZ being the bigger one and DAZ being the smaller one. LAZ is in

and consists of over 300 buildings sitting in a small city of its own. The Factory Property is equipped with its own water pumping system, power transforming plant, gas filtration system, water cleaning and discharging system, machinery cooling system, centralized compressed air, fire house, police team, internal telephone/PA system, press building, laser cutting shop, chroming shop, metalworking shop, painting center, design borough, and marketing center. The Factory spans more than 20 city blocks wide and 30 deep. DAZ is smaller, Consisting of 20 large buildings located in Kamianske. DAZ is equipped with a large assembly hall, central compressed air, welding, painting, testing center, and much more. The central office for LAZ Holding is in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

, Ukraine and is located in the city center.

Structure

LAZ Holding consists of a few companies. *Lviv Bus Factory "LAZ" *Dnipro Bus Factory "DAZ" *Mykolaiv Machine Plant "MMZ" *LAZ finance company "LAZ Finance" *LAZ sales "Torhovyi dim LAZ" *LAZ Service and parts "LAZ Service" *LAZ Holding central office "Office Kyiv" *LAZ New York office "Office New York" *Lemberg Coach Luxury buses "Lemberg Coach"

Current models

*NeoLAZ-12 (LAZ-5208) **Lemberg 5208MB - Tour coach on a Mercedes Benz chassis **Lemberg 5208MAN - Tour coach on a Man chassis **Lemberg 5208SP - Special purpose vehicle **NeoLAZ 5208MB - Mercedes chassis **NeoLAZ 5208ML - MAN engine **NeoLAZ 5208DM - Deutz engine **NeoLAZ 5208DT - Detroit engine *NeoLAZ-10 (LAZ-4207DM) - 10 meter coach bus on a LAZ chassis *AeroLAZ (LAZ-AX183D) - 12 meter airport bus which has doors on both sides *CityLAZ-10LE (LAZ-A152) - 10 meter city bus *CityLAZ-12 **CityLAZ A183D1 - 12 meter low floor city bus **CityLAZ A183D4 - 12 meter bus with low floor and euro 4 engine **CityLAZ A183N1 - 12 meter bus with an EEv engine **CityLAZ A183F0 - 12 meter city bus **CityLAZ A183NG - 12 meter Natural Gas powered city bus CNG-Compressed Methane *CityLAZ A191 - 13.5 meter low floor city bus *CityLAZ A183-13.5 - 13.5 meter city bus *CityLAZ-20 (LAZ-A292) - 18.6 meter low floor city bus *ElectroLAZ-12 **ElectroLAZ E183D1 - 12 meter trolley bus DC **ElectroLAZ E183D2 - 12 meter trolley bus DC 2 motors **ElectroLAZ E183A1 - 12 metre trolley bus AC **ElectroLAZ E183A2 - 12 metre trolley bus DC 2 motors *ElectroLAZ-20 **ElectroLAZ E301D1 - 18.6 meter trolley bus DC **ElectroLAZ E301D2 - 18.6 meter trolley bus DC 2 motors **ElectroLAZ E301A1 - 18.6 meter trolley bus AC **ElectroLAZ E301A2 - 18.6 meter trolley bus DC 2 motors *InterLAZ 10LE (LAZ-42078) - 10 meter intercity bus *InterLAZ 12LE - 12 meter intercity bus *InterLAZ 13.5LE (LAZ-A191F0) - 13.5 meter intercity bus *LAZ Liner-9 (LAZ-A141) - 9 meter intercity bus *LAZ Liner-12 (LAZ-5207) - 12 meter intercity bus *LAZ A141 Liner (LAZ-A141D1) - 9.2 meter bus

Discontinued models

* LAZ-695 "Lviv" (1956–2008) *LAZ-697 "Tourist" (1959–1985) *LAZ-699 (1964–2002) *LAZ-4202 (1978–1993) **LAZ-4204 **LAZ-4969 *LAZ-4206 (1986) *LAZ-4207 (1984–2002) *LAZ-5207 (1994–2002) *LAZ-5252 (1992–2006) *LAZ-52521 *LAZ-52522 (1993–2006) *LAZ-52528 (2002–2004) *LAZ-52529 *LAZ-5256 *LAZ-5257 *LAZ-A073 (1998) *LAZ-A291 (2001–2005) *LAZ-3202 *LAZ-A173 *LAZ-A141

Electric cars

* NAMI-LAZ-750 (1951)

Trailers

* LAZ-712 (1954) * LAZ-729 (1954) * LAZ-742B (1956) * 1-APM-3

Truck cranes

* AK-32 (1951, mounted on ZIS-150) * LAZ-690 (1955–?, mounted on ZIS-150, ZIL-164, ZIL-164A)

Prototypes

*LAZ-360 *LAZ-360EM (1970) *LAZ-696 (1966) *LAZ-698 (1963) *LAZ-698 "Carpathians-1" (1960) *LAZ-698 "Carpathians-2" (1960, based on LAZ-697) *LAZ-5255 "Carpathians" (1980) *LAZ-6205 (1995) *LAZ-6206 (2000) *LAZ "Ukraine-1" (1961) *LAZ "Ukraine-2" (1961) *LAZ "Ukraine-67" (1967) *LAZ "Ukraine-69" (1969) *LAZ "Ukraine-71" (1971, prototype for LAZ-699N) *LAZ "Ukraine-73" (1973) *LAZ-E291 (2006, prototype 17 meter trolleybus)

References

External links

* {{Ukrainian trolleybuses Bus manufacturers of Ukraine Bus manufacturers of the Soviet Union LAZ Trolleybus manufacturers 1945 establishments in Ukraine Companies based in Lviv Electric vehicle manufacturers of Ukraine