Bus manufacturing company in Lviv, Ukraine (1945-2014)
Lviv Bus Factory (LAZ)
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/LAZ_logo.png) |
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Building_of_Lviv_Bus_Factory.jpg/250px-Building_of_Lviv_Bus_Factory.jpg) LAZ factory in Lviv
|
Company type
| Holding company
|
---|
Industry
| Bus
manufacturing
|
---|
Founded
| May 21, 1945
; 79 years ago
(
1945-05-21
)
in
Lviv, Ukraine
|
---|
Defunct
| October 2014
|
---|
Headquarters
| Kyiv Ukraine,
,
|
---|
Key people
| Igor Churkin
[1]
[2]
|
---|
Products
| Buses
,
trolleybuses
|
---|
Brands
| LAZ, Lemberg Coach, LVIV bus
|
---|
Owner
| City Transport Group
|
---|
Parent
| LAZ Holding
|
---|
Website
| www
.laz
.ua
|
---|
NeoLAZ 12
is used by
FC Karpaty Lviv
.
A
Mil Mi-10
transport-helicopter displayed at the 1965
Paris Air Show
with a LAZ bus carried beneath it.
LAZ 695
? a common sight in former
Soviet
cities
LAZ 699
in
Tomsk
,
Russia
LAZ Liner 12
LAZ 52528
in Lviv
LAZ 52522
trolleybus
ElectroLAZ 12
ElectroLAZ E301D1
- 18.6 meter trolley bus
Lemberg 5208
in the center of
Lviv
The
Lviv Automobile Factory
(
Ukrainian
:
Льв?вський автомоб?льний завод
), mostly known under its obsolete name
Lvivskyi Avtobusnyi Zavod
(
Ukrainian
:
Льв?вський автобусний завод
, literally
"Lviv Bus Factory"
) was a
bus
manufacturing company in
Lviv
,
Ukraine
. Their
brand
-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
and the largest-ever industrial company in the city of Lviv. The factory was held by a private holding company.
History
[
edit
]
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
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
, was used by over 25 cities around the world.
LAZ provided transportation for the
UEFA Euro 2012
championship held in
Ukraine
and
Poland
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
[
edit
]
LAZ Holding had two factories located in Ukraine: LAZ and DAZ
LAZ headquarters and factory were in
Lviv
,
Ukraine
. 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
. 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
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"
Buses
[
edit
]
Trolleybuses
[
edit
]
Electric cars
[
edit
]
Trailers
[
edit
]
- LAZ-712 (1954)
- LAZ-729 (1954)
- LAZ-742B (1956)
- 1-APM-3
Truck cranes
[
edit
]
- AK-32 (1951, mounted on ZIS-150)
- LAZ-690 (1955??, mounted on ZIS-150, ZIL-164, ZIL-164A)
Prototypes
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
LAZ
.