ZAZ: History, Landmark Models and Legacy

ZAZ at a glance

ZAZ is the Ukrainian carmaker known above all for the Zaporozhets microcar, the Tavria family and its own versions of the Daewoo Lanos. Facts are verified up to 2020.

From harvesters to cars: the Kommunar works and the 1950s

ZAZ began as a factory for agricultural equipment and only turned to cars at the end of the 1950s. The works was founded by Abram J. Koop. Sources disagree on the year: 1863 is the date most often given, while some list 1923, when the nationalised plant was renamed Kommunar. From 1929–30 Kommunar built combine harvesters, and its output by 1952 is usually quoted as 129,724.

Design work on an economy city car began in 1956, and in October 1957 the MZMA factory built a prototype, the Moskvitch-444, whose engine was judged unsuitable. The decision to give the car to the Kommunar plant, and the plant's new name, ZAZ, are dated 28 November 1958 in one account and 1961 in another, so "the late 1950s" is the safer description.

ZAZ-965 Zaporozhets: a small car built around an air-cooled V4

The ZAZ-965 was a two-door rear-engined microcar that took the Fiat 600 as its reference but differed from it in the most important part, the engine. Minister Nikolay Strokin chose the Fiat as the model to follow. Where the Fiat used a water-cooled inline-four, the Zaporozhets used an air-cooled V4.

The engine first chosen was the NAMI-G, a 746 cc air-cooled V4 also developed for the LuAZ-967 of the Lutsk Automobile Plant. Production cars received the MeMZ-965, a larger V4 built by MeMZ, the engine plant that supplied ZAZ from 1960. A 90-degree air-cooled V4 has no coolant to freeze, which made it practical in hard winters. Rear placement helped traction on slopes but hurt stability in corners.

A prototype was ready on 12 June 1959 and the car was approved on 25 July 1960. Serial production started in autumn 1960; the exact day is given as 1 October in some sources and 25 October in others. About 1,500 cars were built by the end of that year.

The ZAZ-965 was made from 1960 to 1963, with 322,106 cars built (one passage gives 322,116). The updated 965A followed from November 1962 to May 1969. Its rounded rear earned it the nickname "horbatyi" (hunchback), never used by factory workers. Export versions carried an E suffix, as in the 965E and 965AE.

ZAZ-966 and ZAZ-968: the rear-engined line to 1994

The second-generation Zaporozhets kept the air-cooled V4 at the back and stayed in production, in updated forms, for 28 years. The ZAZ-966 was built from November 1966 to 1972; one production table starts it in 1967. A 22 kW (30 PS) version of the V4 arrived in November 1966.

The export ZAZ-966E was sold in Western Europe, including Finland and France, and some markets are reported to have fitted a 956 cc Renault engine instead of the V4. The ZAZ-968 was built from 1971 to 1980, and the 968M from 1979. Export versions were labelled 968E and 968AE.

The last 968M left the line on 1 June 1994. By then the Soviet Union had broken up and Western front-wheel-drive economy cars had made the rear-engined layout obsolete. Across all versions from 1960, 3,422,444 Zaporozhets cars were built.

The 1980s: the Tavria and front-wheel drive

The Tavria was ZAZ's move to a modern front-wheel-drive hatchback, built in a new production complex. In 1975 the plant became part of the AvtoZAZ production association, which also included MeMZ. In 1986 a new production complex was installed with the Italian engineering firm Comau, and the parts plant at Illichivsk (now Chornomorsk) joined AvtoZAZ.

The ZAZ-1102 Tavria was a three-door hatchback with MacPherson strut front suspension and a twist-beam rear axle. It replaced the air-cooled V4 with the water-cooled MeMZ-245 inline-four. Its start of production is dated to 1987 in most accounts, with 1988 and 1989 also given. The name Tavria, a historical name for the northern Black Sea region, was chosen in 1989 through a factory contest. In October 1989 the plant built its three millionth car.

In the early 1990s the Tavria was exported to Chile, and from 1992 to 1995 it was sold in Colombia and Argentina.

The 1990s and 2000s: Dana, Slavuta and the Pick-Up

ZAZ widened the Tavria into a family of bodies. The ZAZ-1105 Dana was a five-door estate; its years are given as 1992–1999 in one source and 1994–1997 in another, and a van version appeared in 1996.

The ZAZ-1103 Slavuta was a B-class liftback with injected 1.2- and 1.3-litre engines. Its start date also varies, 1995 in one account and 1999 in another. More than 140,000 Slavutas are reported to have been built, and the last car was sold at an online auction on 11 February 2011.

The ZAZ-11055 Pick-Up had a fibreglass cargo box, 1.1- to 1.3-litre MeMZ-310 engines and a payload of 420 kg (926 lb); it is listed for 1999–2010. The Tavria Nova of 1999 (1998 in some sources) was developed with Daewoo. Production of the Tavria hatchback finished in 2007, with small batches reported in 2008 and 2009.

1998–2008: AvtoZAZ-Daewoo and new owners

The Daewoo joint venture turned ZAZ from a builder of its own designs into an assembler of imported models. AvtoZAZ-DEU was established with Daewoo Motors on 15 April 1998. From 1998 the Chornomorsk plant assembled the Daewoo Lanos, Nubira and Leganza from CKD kits, delivered in parts and put together locally.

Daewoo went bankrupt in 2001. In 2002 the UkrAVTO group acquired more than 82% of AvtoZAZ, which owned 50% of ZAZ, and a new logo followed. ZAZ became a closed joint-stock company in January 2003. That year Hirsch & Cie bought Daewoo's 50% stake and ZAZ signed a distribution agreement with Adam Opel, followed in 2004 by production of the Opel Astra Classic.

The reported output peak was 282,300 vehicles in 2007, and volumes fell sharply after 2008.

The Lanos, Sens and Chance lineage

The Lanos, Sens and Chance are one car under different names. Daewoo launched the Lanos in South Korea in November 1996 and in Europe in 1997. It was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign and used the GM T platform, first as the T100 and from 1999 as the T150. Daewoo offered three- and five-door hatchbacks and a four-door saloon with E-TEC engines of 1.3 litres, 55 kW (75 PS); 1.5 litres, 63 kW (86 PS); and 1.6 litres, 78 kW (106 PS). Daewoo itself replaced it with the Kalos after the 2002 model year.

ZAZ kept the car going. From 2002 it fitted some kits with its own MeMZ-307 engine and sold them as the Daewoo Sens. Full-scale production on the Lanos chassis began in December 2004, and in March 2009 the car was renamed the ZAZ Lanos (T150). It was also sold as the ZAZ Chance. About 364,000 Lanos cars were sold in Ukraine. Passenger-car assembly ended on 29 November 2017, while the Lanos panel van, built from 2006, continued to 2020.

2006–2020: Chery, Chevrolet and the last passenger cars

In its last decade ZAZ added Chinese and Korean designs to the Lanos. An agreement with Chery was signed in 2006, and in the same year ZAZ began building the I-VAN bus on a Tata platform, followed by the A10 in 2010.

The ZAZ Forza, based on the Chery A13, went into production in 2011 as a saloon and hatchback. Its 1.5-litre 16-valve engine is quoted at 80 kW (109 PS) at 6,000 rpm and 140 Nm (103 lb-ft), figures given for the Chery model in general. Reported output was 4,138 in 2011, 2,853 in 2012 and 1,447 in 2013. A 2016 facelift was shown as the Slavuta Nova but was cancelled.

The Chevrolet Aveo (T250) moved to ZAZ in 2011, and full-scale production of the ZAZ Vida began in March 2012; it had first been planned as the ZAZ Point. The Vida Cargo panel van, with a 450 kg (992 lb) payload, followed in 2016, and the Vida was sold until 2020.

The company was renamed Promautoinvest on 27 December 2016, with UkrAVTO as its parent. After passenger-car assembly stopped in November 2017, the plant shifted to commercial vehicles. Developments after 2020 are outside the scope of this article.

Final passenger-car range

ZAZ built this range in the 2010s, before car assembly ended.

Specifications for the models listed on 1cars are collected in the ZAZ catalogue.

Landmark models that defined ZAZ

Nine cars trace ZAZ's path from the air-cooled Zaporozhets to licensed Daewoo, Chery and Chevrolet designs.

The early rear-engined cars belong to the period covered in the 1cars classic car archive.

ZAZ timeline

The main dated milestones:

ZAZ in numbers

Key production and sales figures:

• 3,422,444 Zaporozhets cars built, 1960–1994.
• Three millionth ZAZ car built in October 1989.
• More than 140,000 Slavutas, as reported.
• 282,300 vehicles in 2007, the reported peak year.
• About 364,000 Lanos cars sold in Ukraine.

Ukraine's other vehicle makers

ZAZ was Ukraine's main passenger-car plant, but not its only vehicle maker. The KrAZ plant built heavy trucks, LAZ built buses, and the Bogdan Corporation assembled cars and buses.