The Lviv Automobile Factory, mostly known under its obsolete name L’vivs’ky Avtobusnyi Zavod was a busmanufacturing company in Lviv, Ukraine. Their brand-name is LAZ, 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 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 MoscowMinistry 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. 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, can be seen circulating in over 25 cities around the world. LAZ provided transportation for the UEFA Euro 2012 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 Lviv, Ukraine 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 Kiev, Ukraine and is located in the city center.
