After Russia, Ukraine is the country that can boast the most developed automotive sector among the former Soviet republics. Among the most significant models, in addition to the small Zaz “Zaporozhets”, there are also the famous Dnepr sidecars, pride of motorcycle production beyond what was once the Iron Curtain
The ongoing conflict has once again attracted the spotlight of the general public to Ukraine: a state known to most people only marginally, often due to the complicated (and bloody) geopolitical events of recent years. In reality, the young independent republic born from the dissolution of the USSR is, together with Russia and Kazakhstan, one of the largest sovereign entities that emerged from the collapse of the Soviet empire, as well as one of the most developed of the former socialist federation.
mainly military production
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Suffice it to say that at the end of 1991 the newborn Ukraine, a country in which 23% of Soviet agricultural production was concentrated, also inherited 16% of the imposing industrial apparatus of the Union. And if more than a third was of military production – including some excellence, for example in the field of missiles – there were also many companies operating in the automotive field, a sector that, even in the last thirty years, has continued between ups and downs to trace the line between Ukraine and the other former federated republics of the post-Soviet space.
THE SOVIET AGE
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Obviously, the birth of the Ukrainian automobile industry must be traced back to the Soviet era, even if in order to await developments in the “consumer” sense – within the limits of the planned economy, of course – one must wait for the second post-war period. Just when the conflict is in its final stages, also thanks to Stalin’s Five-Year Plans, the builders that will help set in motion a Soviet Union back from the Great Patriotic War against the Axis forces begin to emerge: KrAZ, Laz, LuAZ, HelAZ, Sarz, Lzaz, Larz, tongue twister acronyms behind which words hide Avtomobilebudivnyi Zavodthat is “car factory”.
a story that continues
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Most of them are actually manufacturers of trucks, buses, military vehicles, heavy vehicles or vehicles dedicated to public transport, rather than cars in the strict sense of the term. Some of them have survived to the present day, such as the Lzaz of Lviv and the Kraz of Kremenchuck: the latter, on the verge of bankruptcy at the turn of the 2000s and 2000s due to the financial crisis, has also recovered thanks to the partnership with the Canadian Streit Group and to military orders from the Kyiv government, which in November 2014, following the Russian invasion of Crimea, ordered 1,400 vehicles for over 64 million dollars.
THE ZAZ
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The automobile industry, strictly speaking, developed in the country starting from the end of the 1950s, making the Ukrainian RSS the only republic together with its Russian counterpart capable of producing more than 200,000 vehicles per year. Driving the four-wheeler sector is Zaz, a company that has its roots even in the mid-nineteenth century: its founder, the German-born entrepreneur Abram Koop, throws himself into the business of agricultural equipment, a sector in the which the future Zaz will operate under the name of Kommunar even after the nationalization imposed by the socialist regime.
The popular model
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Thus, at the end of the 1920s, the first agricultural machines arrived, sometimes obtained by reverse engineering from American projects, which allowed the USSR to block imports from abroad. But it was in the mid-1950s that the Minavtroprom, the Soviet transport ministry, began to support the production of a popular little car, much more compact and simple than the opulent Gaz and Zil of equipment e nomenclature. Thus were born the so-called “Zaporozhets”, the Soviet equivalent of the Trabant in the GDR, of the Zastava in Yugoslavia or, to cross the Iron Curtain, of our VW Beetle and Fiat 600.
LA 965
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And it is precisely from the small car from Fiat that the Moskvich technicians, to whom the Minavtroprom entrusted the design, set out for the construction of the first Zaporozhets, named after the city of Zaporizhzhya. The orders of the ministry are clear, the 600 is the car to take inspiration from, but the differences will be too many to speak of a real clone. For the engine, several options were evaluated and in the end, given the success of the Volkswagen boxers, it was decided to opt for an air-cooled V4, a 746 cc engine already developed for the small amphibious vehicle for military use LuAZ-967. Accredited with 23 Hp of power and characterized by doors that open against the wind, the car went into production between 1959 and 1960 with the new Zaz brand (Zaporiz’kyj Avtomobilebudivnyi Zavod) and the name of Zaz-965. A van version was also launched, destined for the Soviet postal service.
THE OTHER “ZAPOROZHETS”
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It is obviously not a lightning bolt, but it is simple, robust and easy to repair, the ideal characteristics for a small car. In the fall of 1962, just as the world is holding its breath due to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Zaz-965A is also launched, an improved and more powerful version that anticipates the debut of the second generation of Zaporozhets by a few years. On the strength of the experience accumulated with over 300,000 965s produced, in 1966 Zaz decided to dare with the new 966, a small three-volume reminiscent of the German Nsu Prinz. The displacement grows up to 887 cc and even the radio arrives, for a car that under the names of Yalta and Eliette will also be exported to some Western countries such as Austria and Belgium. Evolving first into Zaz-968 and then into Zaz-968M, the second generation of Zaporozhets remained in production until 1994, and also appeared in the animated film Cars 2 (ancestor 965, on the other hand, had a part in 007 GoldenEye). It was also Vladimir Putin’s first car.
FROM USSR TO UKRAINE
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In 1989, while the Soviet Union creaks, the 1102 Tavria makes its debut, a more modern car, the first compact front-wheel drive Zaz that also stores air-cooling with a new liquid four-cylinder. The transition to the capitalist system, however, turns out to be anything but easy, and if at the end of 1990 an influential European agency places Ukraine in first place among the USSR states in terms of economic potential, four years later. L’Economist he would have written: “Ukraine has managed to achieve a result that many believed impossible to achieve: to invent an economic system even less efficient than that of the Soviet Union”.
a difficult passage
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The inexperience of the ruling class and widespread corruption add up to the systemic problems inherited from the old federation, making the transition to the market economy even more complex than in other post-communist realities, bringing GDP to halve in just four years (1991 -1995). It goes without saying that the crisis also dramatically affects the automotive sector. In 1994, with the Budapest Memorandum, Kyiv definitively renounced its “portion” of the former Soviet nuclear arsenal, a decision that certainly contributes to accelerate the approach to Europe and therefore to open the doors of collaborations also on an industrial level.
LE PARTNERSHIP
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Zaz, which until the 2000s will be largely owned by the state, is among the first companies to exploit these opportunities: in 1998 the AvtoZaz-Daewoo joint-venture was born, an alliance that allows the manufacturer from Zaporizhzhya to acquire know-how and technologies to become the only Ukrainian manufacturer in the automotive sector to have a complete production cycle. In the AvtoZaz plants, therefore, the assembly of Lanos, Nubira, Leganza and other models, produced even after the failure of Daewoo with the Zaz and Chevrolet brands, begins. Acquired by the holding company UkrAvto, Zaz starts collaborations with other brands of international importance such as Opel, Mercedes, Renault (Dacia), Tata, Kia and Chery and the Russian Lada, which, in factories in Chornomorsk, Illichivsk, Melitopol and Zaporizhzhya, assemble – or they even produce – some of their own models.
THE OTHERS: BOGDAN AND EUROCAR
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From the 2000s to today, most of the Ukrainian manufacturers, united in the Ukrautoprom industry association, have taken the same path as Zaz, namely that of production and assembly “for third parties” and collaboration with European and Korean brands and Chinese. Among the most famous, in addition to Electon and Etalon which are mainly dedicated to heavy vehicles or for public service, there are Bogdan and Eurocar.
the current times
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The first, born as a bus manufacturer and controlled until 2009 by the future Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko (2014-2019), landed in the world of four wheels initially as a distributor for Kia and various Russian brands, and then moved from 2000 to the construction of Hyundai, Jac and Lada models, sometimes sold under their own brand. The second, founded in 2001, is instead part of the Atoll Holding Group and has established very close ties with the Vag group: in the Eurocar plant in Solomonovo, a modern factory with very high standards built near the Slovak and Hungarian borders, models are produced Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and above all Skoda: its assembly lines have churned out, and continue to churn out, models like Octavia, Fabia, Superb, Roomster, Kodiaq and Karoq.
I SIDECAR DNEPR-KMZ
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We cannot talk about the automotive industry in Ukraine without mentioning Kmz, one of the main motorcycle manufacturers of the entire USSR together with Ural. Founded in Kiev at the behest of the Soviet government in September 1945, Kyivskyi Mototsykletnyi Zavod started by “cloning” some German small-displacement models, then moving on to larger bikes and its true specialty: sidecars. Also in this case we started taking inspiration from pre-war BMWs, with the 1951 M-72 paving the way for various models (K-750, MT-9, MT-10, MT-11, MT16) some of which produced in a double civil-military version.
the parable
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Known under the trade name of Dnepr, appreciated for their good off-road skills, these small cars met with some success also abroad, and not only in satellite countries: Kmz produced up to 140,000 motorcycles a year in the seventies. also imported into the West sometimes with the Cossack brand. In spite of a marked conservatism in the models built in large series, Dnepr-Kmz distinguished itself within the Soviet production for a certain propensity for experimentation and racing activity, having created both racing sidecars and Wankel motor prototypes. Unfortunately, the drop in demand and the financial crisis forced Kmz, in the years closest to us, to lower the shutters: the Kyiv plant operated at full capacity until a few years ago, and then dedicated itself only to the construction of spare parts and accessories. In 2018 the plant closed permanently.
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