ErAZ or Yerevanskiy Avtomobilny Zavod ( hy, ԵրԱԶ or Երևանի ավտոմոբիլային գործարան, russian: ЕрАЗ or Ереванский Автомобильный Завод, , Yerevan Automobile Plant), was an Armenian automobile manufacturer in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

, mostly known for producing the

van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

RAF-977K (as ErAZ-762) from 1966 to 1996. Plans to establish the ErAZ factory came about on December 31, 1964, by the

Council of Ministers of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

. The original staff were trained at the

Riga Autobus Factory The Riga Autobus Factory (RAF; ) was a factory in Jelgava, Latvia, making vans and minibuses under the brand name Latvija. History Origins, Riga period During the Soviet period, RAF and UAZ were the only producers of vans and minibuse ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

and

UAZ UAZ or Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (russian: Ульяновский Автомобильный Завод, УАЗ, Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod, UAZ, Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, UAZ) is an automobile manufacturer based in Ulyanovsk, Russia, ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. ErAZ was privatized in 1995, and declared bankruptcy in 2002.

History

The company started 31 December 1964, with '' Minavtoprom'' (the Soviet agency responsible for the

automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industry ...

, to licence-produce the RAF-977 at a local

forklift A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various c ...

plant). In 1965, the first team of 66 people was created and in the beginning to serve

n and

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

manufacturers.Thompson, p. 193. On 10 September 1965, the company moved to its first factory. The first vehicle, known as the ErAZ-762 (known as ''Yeraz'' (Dream), was built 1 May 1966, assembling parts produced elsewhere. Production the first year was 1000 of the plant's design capacity of 2,500 vehicles per year. Early products had payloads of and . They are vans and furgons, which were produced for the needs of the Armenian country and other republics in

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. The company built an improve ErAZ-762A beginning in 1969. Production climbed to 6,500 a year by 1973, and reached 12,000 in 1975, due to installation of a genuine

assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in seq ...

, one of the Soviet Union's first of its kind. ErAZ designers began work on an all-new van, the ErAZ-3730, in 1971, following the lead of the

Commer Commer was a British manufacturer of commercial and military vehicles from 1905 until 1979. Commer vehicles included car-derived vans, light vans, medium to heavy commercial trucks, and buses. The company also designed and built some of its own ...

and

Dodge Walk Thru Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

. The first trials models were assembled in 1976; they never entered production, due to a lack of funds. The ErAZ-762B appeared in 1976.Thompson, p. 301. In 1982, the company produced its 100,000-th vehicle.

Models

*1966-1996 ErAZ-762 (762A, 762B, 762AIV, 762VAR) *ErAZ-3218 *1995-2002 ErAZ-3730

Gallery

File:RAF-977front.jpg, ErAZ-762VGP, based upon

RAF-977 The RAF-977 was a Soviet cabover van made by Riga Autobus Factory (RAF) based on components from the GAZ-21 Volga. It was introduced in 1958 and was manufactured in two main styles: a 10-seater minibus and an ambulance. In 1961, an updated versio ...

minibus File:ErAZ-762 2018 stamp of Armenia.jpg, ErAZ-762 on a 2018 stamp

References

External links

ErAZ fan page
__NOTOC__ {{coord, 40, 12, 43, N, 44, 31, 40, E, type:landmark_region:AM, display=title 1960s cars 1970s cars 1980s cars 1990s cars Motor vehicle manufacturers of the Soviet Union Motor vehicle manufacturers of Armenia Armenian companies established in 1964 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1964 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 2002

History

Models

Gallery

References

Further reading

External links