ZAZ

Zaporozhye Automobile Building Plant is a Soviet and Ukrainian enterprise that produces cars, as well as vans and buses. It is the head plant of the corporation "UkrAVTO"

The plant has a full cycle of automotive production - from metal stamping in press production and automated and robotic welding, painting and assembly lines to maintenance of cars sold in a network of car dealerships. The main production is located in the Kommunarsky district of the city of Zaporozhye;

In 1991-2014 he was the leader of the Ukrainian automobile industry. Since the independence of Ukraine and until 2014, the plant produced up to 300-400 thousand cars a year, most of them were exported. Since 2014, production has decreased tenfold, by 2018 the plant stopped producing cars, releasing only buses, vans and auto components. On December 6, 2018, the bankruptcy proceedings of the plant began, the property was put up for auction. In the same 2018, the company received UAH 1.07 billion of net profit, while in 2017 the loss was UAH 287.75 million. From 2019 until September 2020, the plant did not produce passenger cars. . Originally planned as a people's car of the USSR

The date of establishment of the plant is considered to be 1863, when the Mennonite Abraham Yakovlevich Koop opened workshops for the production of straw cutters and iron parts for windmills in the Shenwiese colony. Soon these workshops were transformed into an agricultural machinery plant, producing harvesters, threshers, bookers and plows. In 1908, an enterprise was founded, which later turned into the Melitopol Motor Plant (MeMZ).

In 1923, the former plant of Abraham Koop was renamed Kommunar. However, the direction of activity has been preserved, taking into account the emergence of new agricultural equipment - tractors, harvesters and other agricultural equipment. The first Soviet combine harvester "Kommunar" was produced at the plant.

Combine Kommunar

ZAZ-968M "Zaporozhets"

Since 1960, MeMZ began to supply its engines to ZAZ. Since 1975, MeMZ has become part of the AvtoZAZ production association. Now it is one of the structural elements of CJSC ZAZ.

In 1961, the plant was renamed into "Zaporozhye Automobile Plant". The plant was engaged in the production of a single car - ZAZ-965 ("Moskvich-444" / "Moskvich-560"), which went down in history as the "Humpbacked Zaporozhets", which was developed at MZMA, but due to lack of production capacity was transferred to ZAZ.

ZAZ-968A "Zaporozhets" (1973-1979)

In 1966, the updated Zaporozhets - ZAZ-966, which was radically different from its predecessor, entered the conveyor. In total (from 1960 to 1994), 3,422,444 Zaporozhets vehicles and air-cooled engines manufactured by MeMZ were manufactured in Zaporozhye. In 1979, the ZAZ-968M was put into mass production.

In 1986, under a contract with the Italian "factory of factories" Comau, a new production complex was created, which included: a body welding shop, a painting shop, an assembly shop. In 1987, the production of ZAZ-1102 "Tavria" cars began - the first cars of the plant with liquid-cooled engines.

Zaz 1102 Tavria

On July 1, 1994, the production of the ZAZ-968M, the last rear-engined ZAZ car, ended.

In the mid-1990s, the difficult financial situation at the plant was aggravated by the fact that all foreign exchange earnings had to be handed over to the state, which led to a thorough washing out of working capital. To keep the plant afloat, the director started looking for an investor among the leaders of the global automotive industry. Peugeot first came into view, then Fiat, and in 1995 General Motors. Even the first vice-president of General Motors flew to Kiev for negotiations. However, the leaders of the Ministry of Industrial Policy settled on the option of creating a joint venture with the Daewoo concern, with an authorized capital of $150 million. Director Stepan Kravchun, who disagreed with this, wrote a letter of resignation.

In June 1996, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the decision to privatize the plant.

In August 1997, the plant was included in the list of enterprises of strategic importance for the economy and security of Ukraine.

In 1998, the plant began cooperation with the Daewoo Corporation, in connection with which the Ukrainian-Korean Joint Venture with foreign investment AvtoZAZ-Daewoo was created, to which all the assets of AvtoZAZ were transferred. The assembly of new cars begins. A. N. Sotnikov has been appointed General Director of AvtoZAZ-Daewoo JV. The production of a qualitatively new car ZAZ-1102 "Tavria-Nova" was organized at the head plant. and the start of SKD assembly of Daewoo cars: Daewoo Lanos, Daewoo Nubira, Daewoo Leganza.

Daewoo Lanos

In 1999, the production of ZAZ-1103 "Slavuta" (with a "five-door liftback" body), created on the basis of the Tavria chassis and with the participation of its body panels, begins. Daewoo took part in the development. New models of the Tauride series were developed, among them the ZAZ-1105 "Dana" (with a "five-door station wagon" body), which was soon replaced in mass production by the ZAZ-1103 "Slavuta".

Zaz 1103 Slavuta

In 2003, the Daewoo concern sells its share in the joint venture, the plant changes its name and turns into a closed joint-stock company with foreign investment "Zaporozhye Automobile Building Plant"

In 2004, the plant underwent a complete renovation of the means of production. Production of AvtoVAZ cars (VAZ-21093 and VAZ-21099) and GM Opel Astra G begins at the production facilities of the head plant

VAZ 21099

On December 23, 2004, the plant was excluded from the list of enterprises of strategic importance for the economy and security of Ukraine.

In 2005, production facilities were prepared for the production of I-VAN buses based on the chassis of the TATA car.

In 2006, CJSC ZAZ confirms the compliance of its own quality management system with the international standard ISO 9001:2000. ZAZ CJSC products comply with Euro 2 requirements. Production of HX2210 semi-trailers for the transportation of passenger cars and Chinese passenger cars "Chery" has been mastered.

In 2007, the Daewoo Lanos car production localization program was launched, the basic model was restyled, which was called ZAZ Lanos. Developed and launched production of a van based on it.

On September 19, 2008, the three-door Tavria was removed from the assembly line.

Since December 2010, the production of a new car ZAZ Forza similar to Chery A13 has been launched.

Zaz Forza

In January 2011, Slavuta (ZAZ-1103) and Tavria-pickup (ZAZ-110557) cars were discontinued due to unprofitability due to reduced demand.

On March 13, 2012, sales of the new ZAZ Vida model began in Ukraine. In September 2012, ZAZ planned to start selling the model in Russia. On November 23, 2012, the plant suspended production until February 6, 2013.

In July 2014, the plant produced only eight cars. On July 18, 2014, the administration of the plant decided to lay off 2.1 thousand employees. In August 2014, the plant switched to a three-day working week. At the end of 2014, the plant actually stopped the production of cars, producing only spare parts.

Compared to 2014, in 2015 ZAZ sales decreased from 7,463 to 2,893 cars, and the market share - from 8 to 6.23%. In 2015, the automobile plant produced 3937 vehicles (71% less than in 2014). The enterprise, compared to the previous year, reduced the production of passenger cars by 71% - to 3,624 units. In January 2016, the plant stopped and switched to the production of vehicle kits for General Motors in Egypt, where 20,000 Lanos cars are produced per year. The plant employs a little over 1,000 people. In May 2016, ZAZ presented the Slavuta Nova concept, which was developed jointly with Chery Automobile, but there is no need to talk about mass production.

Zaz Vida

Assembly of Kia Cerato at the ZAZ plant

As of the end of 2016, after a long downtime, the production of cars and buses was resumed. In December 2016, Zaporozhye Automobile Plant launched the serial production of the ZAZ Vida Cargo passenger van. The Vida van is ZAZ's own development: the previous generation Chevrolet Aveo, of which the Vida is an exact copy, did not have a van version.

On November 29, 2017, the production of ZAZ Lanos was discontinued.

In 2017, the plant reduced its net income by 15% compared to the previous year, to UAH 434.62 million, while the net loss decreased by 2.1 times, to UAH 287.75 million. According to the company's financial report for 2017, by the beginning of this year, the total debt of ZAZ amounted to UAH 4 billion 416.7 million, including bank loans UAH 1 billion 775 million (including a credit line in Prominvestbank with an outstanding part of the debt of more than UAH 1 billion UAH, maturity date June 2022, credit line with Ukreximbank - outstanding part of UAH 675.3 million, maturity date December 2030).

For 10 months of 2018, the plant produced only 118 vehicles, including 85 commercial vehicles and 33 buses. In 2018, the company did not produce a single passenger car, but continued to manufacture body parts.

On December 6, 2018, the plant's bankruptcy proceedings began.

In May 2019, the property of ZAZ was put up for auction, the sale of property is carried out by the Ukrainian Central Universal Commodity Exchange.

in 2020, ZAZ increased the production of vehicles by more than 10 times compared to 2019 - up to 885 units. The growth was due to the resumption of car production - up to 816 units, while in 2019 - 0 units. Bus production fell by 2.8% to 69 units.

In general, in 2020, Ukraine reduced the production of vehicles by 31.8% compared to 2019, to 4952 units. The production of passenger cars fell by 33%, to 4202 units, commercial vehicles - by 62.5%, to 51 units, and buses - by 20.2%, to 699 units.

In March 2020, the plant began trial production of LADA cars: Vesta sedan, XRAY crossover and Largus station wagon. Cars began to deliver to dealers. There is no talk of serial production yet.

In September 2020, information about the start of assembly of Renault Arkana cars by AvtoZAZ was confirmed. During the year, the plant was upgraded to meet international requirements.

During the first 8 months Zaporozhye Automobile Building Plant produced more than 2 thousand cars.

In August 2021, it became known that the plant would start mass production of a city bus based on one of the Mercedes-Benz models.