PAZ (Pavlovsky Avtobusny Zavod — Pavlovo Bus Plant) is Russia's largest bus manufacturer, operating since 1951 in the city of Pavlovo in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. The enterprise is among the Region's key industrial facilities and has given the city of Pavlovo nationwide recognition.
History of Founding
The plant grew out of one of Pavlovo's tool-making enterprises. Its history dates to 1930, when a decision was made to establish in Pavlovo a facility to supply the Gorky Automobile Plant with driver's tools and body hardware; construction was completed in 1932 and production began under the name ZATI (Zavod Avtotraktornogo Instrumenta — Automotive and Tractor Tool Plant).[1] The initiative came from the workers and engineers themselves: having received a refusal from Moscow in response to their request for retooling, they quietly built three prototype buses and drove them to the capital on the eve of a public holiday. The demonstration had the desired effect: in 1951 an official decision was issued to convert the tool plant into a bus plant. The formal conversion took place on 24 April 1952, when a decree of the USSR Government renamed it the Pavlovo Bus Plant; and as early as 5 August 1952, the first five buses of the PAZ-651 model — a bonneted design on a GAZ-51 truck chassis — rolled out of the factory gates. In 1958, production began of the plant's first in-house design, the PAZ-652, with a full-forward (bonnetless) body layout.[1]
Production
The plant produces up to 9,000 buses per year in 30 modifications. Engines for Pavlovo buses are supplied by JSC "Zavolzhsky Motor Plant" (ZMZ), which is part of the SOLLERS company. PAZ buses are widely used as urban and suburban transport throughout Russia, including in Nizhny Novgorod, where they formed the backbone of the route network.
Significance for Pavlovo and the Region
Bus manufacturing has become Pavlovo's defining brand: the city, previously known for artisanal metalwork, knives, and cutlery, acquired the status of a center of domestic bus-building. PAZ is a city-forming enterprise that shapes the economic character of the city and Pavlovsky District.
The plant is part of the GAZ Group, which holds 93.79% of the shares in PAO Pavlovsky Avtobus; since 2005 the actual production of buses has been carried out by a subsidiary — OOO PAZ, 100% of whose shares belong to the parent PAO.[1]
Links
- Official website (autobus.ru)
- Wikidata (Q2507663 — entry in the open knowledge base)
Sources
- Wikipedia (ru) — The plant's history dates to 1930, when a decision was made to establish in Pavlovo a facility to supply the Gorky Automobile Plant with driver's tools and bo (archive)