LAZ

May 21, 1945 is considered to be the founding day of the Lviv Bus Plant. Since 1949, the plant has been producing single-axle trailers, trailer bodies, buckets for excavators, truck cranes, experimental electric cars and other industrial products. Back in the late 1940s, the plant planned to master the production of ZiS-155 buses (manufactured by the Stalin Plant), but this prospect did not satisfy the plant's management. The initiative to create your own bus was supported. Several copies of the then Mercedes-Benz and Neoplan Bus Gmbh buses were purchased.

LAZ 695 "Lviv" - the first model of a series of buses 695, 1957

In February 1956, the first LAZ bus was built, named LAZ 695. It was a two-axle, welded body 9-meter bus with a manual transmission and ZIL-124 engine. Details were taken from the LiAZ 158 bus (ZIL 158), well known in the 1950s and 1960s.

The LAZ 695 bus had one feature: it could be easily turned into an ambulance only by dismantling the seats in the cabin. Since the bus was developed in the postwar period, such an element was very justified. Mass production of this bus began in 1956, since then new modifications have been produced (LAZ 695B, LAZ 695E, LAZ 695Z and others); production of this bus lasted 46 years, until 2002, finishing LAZ 695D11 and LAZ 695N. 46 years - so many other bus models have not been mass-produced yet, the LAZ 695 bus bypassed Hungarian Ikarus buses, for example Ikarus 250 was on the assembly line for 28 years (1971-1998), known in the USSR "accordion", Ikarus 280, lasted 27 years -2000); also long-lived buses are the German Neoplan Cityliner - one and a half-story tourist liners in production since 1971; Neoplan Skyliner is a two-story liner that has been in production for 42 years (since 1967).

In 1968, a thousand LAZ 695B buses were assembled, which received a diploma and a gold medal at an exhibition in Brussels.

LAZ 695H bus

In 1961, the first models of tourist buses "Ukraine-1" and "Ukraine-2" were made. In the early 1960s, due to the rapid development of trolleybus systems, Ukrainian cities felt the need to supply new operating trolleybus rolling stock. At that time, the main model of trolleybus in Ukraine was "MTB-82" (also known as Emtebeshka), but in 1960 their production stopped, and instead began production of ZiU-5, in Troll. In 1962, a trolleybus based on LAZ 695B was manufactured in Baku, and was named BTL-62. Later, LAZ made such a trolleybus in Lviv, and it received the index LAZ 695T, LAZ produced 10 of them, and most of them remained in Lviv. Later, this trolleybus was produced in Kyiv under the name Kyiv-5LA in the amount of 75 copies, later, more than 400 copies were made at OdAZ, where it was called OdAZ 695T. LAZ 695T had such advantages over MTB-82 as smaller weight and was more dynamic, but its body was worn out quickly, and it was less capacious, than "emtebeshka" (for comparison about 60 and 86 places).

In the 1960s, the LAZ-697E tourist bus was launched, which had adjustable seats, which appeared on long-distance Ikarus only in their latest editions, and it also had a refrigerator with a speed of up to 75 km / h. Also in 1966, several LAZ 698s were produced, which were not mass-produced and were later reincarnated in the LAZ 4202. The first director of the Lviv Bus Plant was Kashkadamov Borys Pavlovych (1953-1966).

In 1970, the Lviv Bus Plant switched to the production of modernized LAZ 695M buses, as well as intercity LAZ 675E buses. In 1974, the 100,000th bus was produced.

In 1977-1978, a new 9-meter city bus LAZ 4202 began to be developed, it had an automatic transmission and mechanical suspension, despite the fact that it was 9-meter, it could accommodate up to 100 people; this bus was of low quality, however, it had a very low service life, which is why it did not grow to the volume of LAZ 695, it was produced until the mid-1980s, its successor - LAZ 5252.

LAZ 5252, the successor to LAZ 4202 began to be designed in the late 1970s, along with the bus LiAZ 5256, even then far from its modern appearance. However, the 5252 was put into series production only after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early 1990s LAZ 5252 is a high-class bus, its size was almost identical to the Ikarus 260, which he had to replace. This model had many modifications with different engines and also had a trolleybus modification LAZ 52522.

LAZ 4202

In 1978, the LAZ 4202 came off the assembly line, it was produced until the mid-80's, and its modification LAZ 4202-10 was also produced.

In 1985, the first model of the LAZ 4207 intercity bus was made, which was later significantly improved. In 1988, the Lviv Bus Plant produced 14,646 buses - the largest number in its history.

After the collapse of the USSR, there was a need for a high-class city bus (like the Ikarus 260), so since 1992 LAZ has been producing the 5252 model, which in some places resembled the LAZ-4202.

LAZ 52528

In the autumn of 1992 on the basis of LAZ-5252 the first (after LAZ-695T) Lviv trolleybus with the index 52522 was performed, which in the spring of 1993 under number 001 went on the routes of Lviv. It was written off from the trolleybus depot in 2008. The first LAZ-52522 had a number of serious shortcomings with electrical equipment, which were later partially repaired. Trolleybuses were equipped with Kharkiv electric motors ED138AU2, rheostat-contactor control system. For several years of operation, there were breakdowns, including problems with the instrument panel, the destruction of the frame skin. Trolleybuses LAZ-52522 were mass-produced until 1998 (75 copies have been made so far), until they could not compete with YuMZ-T2. Their production was finally stopped in 2004.

In 1994, the Lviv Bus Plant Open Joint-Stock Company was established on the basis of the enterprise, the controlling stake of which belonged to the State Property Fund of Ukraine. Production of high-class intercity buses (LAZ 5207) has started. In 1995, the LAZ model line was replenished with 11 new models of buses, which were either fundamentally new (prototypes Liner-10, Liner-12) or modifications of serial cars.

Commercial name "Liner-12" (LAZ-52078).

In the late 1990s, the LAZ-5252 buses and its modifications were restyled, they received new interior trim, tinted windows and some other innovations (LAZ 5252 # Elements of restyling). The restyling of trolleybuses affected only in 2004. The most successful restyled bus was the LAZ 52528, it was produced until 2005, competing a year with new low-floor models.

Since 2001, the plant has acquired the status of a private enterprise with a collective form of ownership.

In 202 the production of four new models of buses began: suburban and tourist Liner −9, −10, −12, as well as especially large city LAZ-A291; adapted to the requirements of the large city model LAZ-5252.

Modern LAZ, which serves airports

In August 2003, a one-and-a-half-storey tourist LAZ-5208 left the assembly shop - the first bus from a family of completely new models called NeoLAZ. In May 2004, the following two models from the NeoLAZ family were introduced: the LAZ-A183 City low-floor city bus and the LAZ-AH183 Airport low-floor platform bus.

The model range of buses is equipped with engines of the Yaroslavl Motor Plant (Russia), the German company "Deutz" and rear axles "Raba" (Hungary).

On June 7, 2006, Lviv Automobile Plant CJSC (LAZ) changed its name to Communal Transport Plant.

In March 2010, the Government of Ukraine selected LAZ as the main supplier of municipal transport for cities hosting Euro-2012.

According to a number of media outlets, the bus plant belongs to Igor Churkin, the nephew of Russian politician Churkin Vitaly Ivanovich. Vitaly Churkin later stated that he had no nephews.

Although LAZ won the tender for the production of public transport for the host cities of Euro 2012, after the tournament, workers complained about staff cuts, salary delays and the sale of property. In 2013, the plant's equipment was exported to the Dnieper Bus Plant (Dniprodzerzhynsk), which also belongs to Churkin. The businessman said that LAZ buses would be produced there, while trolleybuses and tourist buses would remain in Lviv.

On May 26, 2014, the State Executive Service of Ukraine issued a resolution on the seizure of the property of the debtor plant. The premises were later put up for auction.

In November 2014, the Lviv Bus Plant released the first ambulance bus to transport the wounded from the combat zone. The first copy of the bus was received by the 66th Mobile Hospital of the Military Medical Clinical Center of the Western Region.

In 2014, the holding was forced to stop production at plants in Lviv and Kamyansky.

In 2015, the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration Sinyutka said: “I personally was at the plant. Not everything has been taken away and stolen there yet. As the veterans of the enterprise assured me, the number of easel equipment, production conveyor and other equipment allows to establish the production process. " Experts doubted the possibility of resuming production due to simple conveyors and lack of modern equipment.

In 2016, LAZ was again at the center of a scandal - it turned out that the former premises of the plant were bought by a company associated with Churkin, who brought LAZ to bankruptcy earlier.

On February 8, 2018, a draft resolution of the Lviv City Council was published, which provides for the allocation of funds for the purchase of the company in order to restore it.

On February 15, 2018, deputies of the Lviv City Council removed from the agenda the allocation of funds for the purchase of the company from the Russians.

From the beginning of 2018, the plant resumed production and sales of A183 and A191 buses. From the beginning of 2018 to June, the company sold 7 buses: 4 - A183 and 3 - A191.

As of mid-March 2019, the following information could be seen on the plant's website: “Dear partners! We are selling stocks of new buses A183F0 euro-3 »

On July 5, the state-owned Ukreximbank sold the debts of the bankrupt Lviv Bus Plant at an open auction. The rights of claims under credit agreements and receivables of the plant to the bank for over 170 million UAH were bought by a Kyiv company owned by Lviv businessman Maksym Chukhen.

• LAZ-695
• LAZ-697
• LAZ-698
• LAZ-699
• LAZ-Ukraine
• LAZ-4202
• LAZ-5255
• LAZ-4206
• LAZ-4207 (since 2003 LAZ Liner 10)
• LAZ-6205
• LAZ-5252
• LAZ-5207 (since 2003 LAZ Liner 12)
• LAZ-A141 (since 2003 LAZ Liner 9)
• LAZ-A073
• LAZ-A291
• LAZ-A183 CityLAZ-12, InterLAZ 12LE
• LAZ-A152 CityLAZ 10LE, InterLAZ 10LE
• LAZ-5208 NeoLAZ-12
• LAZ-AX183 AeroLAZ
• LAZ-A191 InterLAZ-13.5LE
• LAZ-A292 CityLAZ-20
• LAZ-4207DM NeoLAZ-10
• LAZ-A141D1 Liner

• LAZ-695T
• LAZ-52522
• LAZ-E183 ElectroLAZ-12
• LAZ-E301 ElectroLAZ-20