AutoVAZ
- This article should be merged with Lada
Lada Riva/Zhiguli sedan (model 2105)
AutoVAZ is a Russian automobile manufacturer based in the town of Togliatti, 600 miles east of Moscow.
VAZ (a Russian acronym for Volga Automobile Works : Во́лжский Автомоби́льный Заво́д = ВАЗ) was set up in 1969 as part of a collaborative agreement between Fiat, the Italian Communist Party and the former USSR government. The resulting factory is one of the biggest in the world, has over 90 miles of production lines and is unique in that most of the components for the cars are made in-house. It produces over 800,000 cars a year. The factory and the town which supports it were named after the Italian Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti, the man who had made the deal possible.
The company's best known product is the Zhiguli car (Model BA3-2101), based on the Fiat 124, and known throughout the world as the Lada. They also make cars under the labels Oka, Samara, Tarzan, Nadezhda and Niva. Lada's recent cooperation with General Motors has resulted in the Chevrolet Niva. VAZ have also tried to get into the sportier markets, several Ladas were factory tuned and given a Momo steering wheel. A convertible was also produced. In 2003 VAZ presented the concept car perestroika AutoVAZ was allowed to sell cars to buyers other than the government. Mathematician Boris Berezovsky arranged to resell the cars to the public and later acquired the company from the government in 1991. AutoVAZ has since developed a new generation of Lada cars and is bidding to return to the Western European market.
The Official English name of the company is JSC AVTOVAZ.
