Lviv Bus Factory

Lviv Bus Factory
LAZ
Holding company
Founded May 21, 1945
Headquarters Lviv, Ukraine
Key people


Igor Churkin[1][2]

Roman Grudinin
Products Buses, trolleybuses
Parent LAZ Holding
Website 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: Львівський автомобільний завод, L’vivs’kyi Avtomobil’nyi Zavod), mostly known under its obsolete name L’vivs’ky Avtobusnyi Zavod (Ukrainian: Львівський автобусний завод, literally "Lviv Bus Factory") is 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.

Structure

LAZ Holding consists of a few companies.

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 Dniprodzerzhynsk. 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 Kyiv, Ukraine and is located in the city center.

Overview

It was one of the major bus manufacturers in the Soviet Union and the largest-ever industrial company in the city. Now it is a private holding company. It still manufactures city buses, coach buses, trolley buses, and special purpose buses. Trams are planned in the near future.

Some of its most widely known products include 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 are used as regular city transportation in the cities hosting EURO 2012. The Lviv Bus Factory (LAZ) is undergoing constant change for the better. An example of this is that LAZ is moving into the American market very soon. The trip for the company starts in New York, where the American offices are located. The first deliveries in Macedonia were made in February 2011. Deliveries for cities in Ukraine were made throughout 2011. In 2012, LAZ continued to develop many new models and continued to make the old ones better. In 2012, three new models were introduced: The LAZ 695 Soyuz, the LAZ 4207 DM, and the LAZ A183 CNG. 2013 may be when the first tram LAZ will be introduced.

Production

The Lviv Bus Factory is a very different company compared to other bus plants in many ways. The first way is that LAZ can produce buses for an extremely low price if compared to other bus makes. The next is that LAZ uses a system called "flexible assembly line" which means that many models which are completely different can be produced on the same line reducing production time and cost. Most factories produce one model on an assembly line requiring many different assembly lines for different types of buses. The reason why other factories do not move to this process is because it is too complicated and difficult to arrange. Another way LAZ is better is the assembly itself. Most other buses are assembled by machine which means that making a custom vehicle to fit your needs is impossible. LAZ buses are all hand assembled. Hand assembly has two benefits. The first is that buses can be tailored to any customers needs. The next is that quality increases when people check over each other's work.

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 Moscow Ministry 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 which exceeded world standards in safety, looks, quality, and price.

Current models in production

  • Lemberg 5208-MB - Tour coach on a Mercedes Benz chassis
  • Lemberg 5208-MAN - Tour coach on a Man chassis
  • Lemberg 5208-SP - Special purpose vehicle
  • NeoLAZ 5208-MB - Mercedes chassis
  • NeoLAZ 5208-ML - MAN engine
  • NeoLAZ 5208-DM - Deutz engine
  • NeoLAZ 5208-DT - Detroit engine
  • NeoLAZ 4207-DM - 10 meter coach bus on a LAZ chassis
  • AeroLAZ AX183 - Airport bus which has doors on both sides
  • CityLAZ A152D1 - 10 meter city bus
  • CityLAZ A183D1 - 12 meter low floor city bus
  • CityLAZ A183D4 - 12 meter bus with low floor and euro 4 engine
  • CityLAZ A183N1 - 12 meter bus with an EEv engine
  • CityLAZ A183F0 - 12 meter city bus
  • CityLAZ A183NG - 12 meter Natural Gas powered city bus CNG-Compressed Methane
  • CityLAZ A191 - 13.5 meter low floor city bus
  • CityLAZ A183-13.5 - 13.5 meter city bus

  • CityLAZ A291 - 17.6 meter low floor city bus
  • CityLAZ A292 - 18.6 meter low floor city bus
  • ElectroLAZ E183D1 - 12 meter trolley bus DC
  • ElectroLAZ E183D2 - 12 meter trolley bus DC 2 motors
  • ElectroLAZ E183A1 - 12 metre trolley bus AC
  • ElectroLAZ E183A2 - 12 metre trolley bus DC 2 motors
  • ElectroLAZ E301D1 - 18.6 meter trolley bus DC
  • ElectroLAZ E301D2 - 18.6 meter trolley bus DC 2 motors
  • ElectroLAZ E301A1 - 18.6 meter trolley bus AC
  • ElectroLAZ E301A2 - 18.6 meter trolley bus DC 2 motors
  • InterLAZ 10LE - 10 meter intercity bus
  • InterLAZ 12LE - 12 meter intercity bus
  • InterLAZ 13.5LE - 13.5 meter intercity bus
  • LinerLAZ A141 City - Small tour coach based on the "LAZ" 695 and designed for comfort and for Ukraine roads
  • LinerLAZ A141 Tour - Small city bus based on the "LAZ" 695 and designed for comfort and for Ukraine roads
  • LAZ 695 soyuz - Mid-sized city bus
  • LAZ 697 soyuz - Mid-sized intercity bus

Discontinued models (USSR/Ukraine)

  • LAZ 695
  • LAZ 695B
  • LAZ 695G
  • LAZ 695E
  • LAZ 695T
  • LAZ 695N
  • LAZ 695N01
  • LAZ 695N11
  • LAZ 695D
  • LAZ 695D11
  • LAZ 695NG
  • LAZ 695M
  • LAZ 695R
  • LAZ 696
  • LAZ 697
  • LAZ 697R
  • LAZ 697N
  • LAZ 697M
  • LAZ 697E
  • LAZ 699A
  • LAZ 698
  • LAZ 698T

  • LAZ 699
  • LAZ 699R
  • LAZ 699N
  • LAZ 699E
  • LAZ 699T
  • LAZ 360
  • LAZ 360EM
  • LAZ 4202
  • LAZ 42021
  • LAZ 42011
  • LAZ 420212
  • LAZ 4204
  • LAZ 4206
  • LAZ 4207
  • LAZ 42072
  • LAZ 42078
  • LAZ 42078A
  • LAZ 4207DL
  • LAZ 4207FL
  • LAZ 4207FT
  • LAZ 4207JL
  • LAZ 4207JN

  • LAZ 4207JT
  • LAZ 4969
  • LAZ 5207
  • LAZ 5207DN
  • LAZ 5207DT
  • LAZ 5207FN
  • LAZ 5207FT
  • LAZ 5207JN
  • LAZ 5207JT
  • LAZ 52078
  • LAZ 52521
  • LAZ 52522
  • LAZ 52523
  • LAZ 52523A
  • LAZ 52527
  • LAZ 525270
  • LAZ 52528
  • LAZ 52528A
  • LAZ 52529
  • LAZ 5252JO
  • LAZ 5252RO
  • LAZ 5257

  • LAZ 6205
  • LAZ 6206
  • LAZ UKRAINE 1
  • LAZ UKRAINE 2
  • LAZ UKRAINE 67
  • LAZ UKRAINE 69
  • LAZ UKRAINE 71
  • LAZ UKRAINE 72
  • LAZ KARPATY
  • LAZ A073
  • LAZ A291
  • LAZ A291RO
  • LAZ 3202
  • LAZ A173
  • LAZ A141
  • LAZ A1413
  • LAZ A1413A
  • LAZ A1414
  • LAZ A1414A
  • LAZ A141DT
  • LAZ A141JL
  • LAZ A141JN
  • LAZ A141JT

See also

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to LAZ vehicles.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, December 25, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.