The Lviv Automobile Factory (), mostly known under its obsolete name ''Lvivskyi Avtobusnyi Zavod'' (, literally ''"Lviv Bus Factory"'') was a

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

manufacturing company in

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. Their

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

-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 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and the largest-ever industrial company in the city of

. The factory was held by a private holding company.

History

The Lviv Bus Plant LAZ was built in 1945 to produce ZIS buses for the USSR. The LAZ 695 bus was designed and approved by the

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Ministry of Transport. Production began in 1956 and continued until 2006. During the 1970s many new models were developed such as the LAZ 699, and 697 both of which are coach buses. In 1967, LAZ was awarded the best bus producer in Europe at the Brussels Auto Show. LAZ is known to be the first company to create the low floor bus, which came in 1963, was called the LAZ 360, and was designed by Nami USSR. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, LAZ suffered economic issues due to the loss of funding. Production was halted due to low demand. After Ukraine's economy started to stabilize, LAZ began producing their newer model, the LAZ 52523. In 2001, LAZ was sold to Russian business tycoon Igor Churkin, and a new business model was implemented. The whole line of production was re-engineered to produce new buses for a lower cost. LAZ used a system called a "flexible assembly line", which gave the ability to produce a variety of different models simultaneously. Additionally, LAZ buses were hand assembled. Some of their most widely known products included the LAZ-695 city bus and its stretch, tourist-oriented version, the LAZ-699. ElectroLAZ, the 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 troll ...

, was used by 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 UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

championship held in

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 2012. The Ukrainian government signed a contract to purchase 2500 new "CityLAZ", with a possibility of 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 had two factories located in Ukraine: LAZ and DAZ LAZ headquarters and factory were in

. This consisted of over 300 buildings. It was 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 bureau and a marketing center. DAZ's headquarters consisted of 20 large buildings located in

Kamianske Kamianske (, ; ), previously known as Dniprodzerzhynsk from 1936 to 2016, is an industrial city in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine, and a port on the Dnieper, Dnieper River. It serves as the administrative center of Kamianske Raion and Kamianske ...

. The DAZ factory plant had a large assembly hall, central compressed air system, welding and painting machinery and a testing center. The central office for LAZ Holding was headquartered in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

city center, Ukraine. 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"

Products

Buses

City buses

* LAZ-695 Lviv (1958–2002) * LAZ-5252 (1992–2006) * LAZ A183 CityLAZ-12 (2004–2012)

Articulated buses

* LAZ-6205 (1995–2000) * LAZ-A291 (2001–2005) * LAZ-A292 CityLAZ-20 (2007–2011)

Coach buses

* LAZ-697 Tourist (1959–1985) * LAZ-5207 (1994–2002) * LAZ-5207 Liner-12 (2003–2012) * LAZ-52081 NeoLAZ-12 (2004–2010)

Intercity buses

* LAZ-699 Karpaty (1964–2002) * LAZ-4207 (1984–2002) * LAZ-A141 (1997–2000) * LAZ A141 Liner-9 (2000–2012) * LAZ-4207 Liner-10 (2003–2012) * LAZ A191 InterLAZ-12LE (2007–2013)

Midibuses

* LAZ-4202 (1978–1995) * LAZ-3202 (1994–1995) * LAZ A073 (1998–1999)

Trolleybuses

* LAZ-695T Lviv (1963–1965) * LAZ-52522 (1993–2006) * LAZ E183 ElectroLAZ-12 (2005–2013) * LAZ E301 ElectroLAZ-20 (2006–2013)

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-695 (1956) * LAZ-698 Karpaty (1960) * LAZ Ukraina (1961) * LAZ-696 (1966) * LAZ-698T Karpaty (1967) * LAZ Ukraina-67 (1967) * LAZ-360 (1968) * LAZ Ukraina-69 (1969) * LAZ Ukraina-71 (1971) * LAZ Ukraina-73 (1973) * LAZ-5255 Karpaty (1980) * LAZ-4206 (1986) * LAZ-5257 (1993) * LAZ-5208 (1994) * LAZ-6206 (2000) * LAZ AX183D AeroLAZ (2005) * LAZ-E291 (2006) * LAZ A152 CityLAZ-10LE (2007) * LAZ-4207 NeoLAZ-10 (2012) * LAZ A141 Liner (2012)

References

External links

* {{Ukrainian trolleybuses Bus manufacturers of Ukraine Bus manufacturers of the Soviet Union LAZ Trolleybus manufacturers 1945 establishments in Ukraine 2014 disestablishments in Ukraine Companies based in Lviv Electric vehicle manufacturers of Ukraine