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LadaAccording to various sources, the name Lada is derived from a Russian word for Viking
longship Longships, a type of specialised Viking ship, Scandinavian warships, have a long history in Scandinavia, with their existence being archaeologically proven and documented from at least the fourth century BC. Originally invented and used by th ...
s ().
(, , marketed as LADAFrom 2004 onwards Lada is marketed worldwide, including in Russia, using the all-capitals brand name written in
Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...
.
) is a brand of small cars manufactured by
AvtoVAZ AvtoVAZ ( rus, АвтоВАЗ, p=ɐftɐˈvas) is a Russian automobile manufacturing company owned by the state. It was formerly named as VAZ (), an acronym for Volga Automotive Plant in Russian (). AvtoVAZ is best known for its flagship series of ...
(originally VAZ), a Russian state-owned company. From January 2021 until May 2022, Lada was integrated with then sister brand
Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus ro ...
into Renault's Lada-Dacia
business unit A strategic business unit (SBU) in business strategic management, is a profit center which focuses on product offering and market segment. SBUs typically have a discrete marketing plan, analysis of competition, and marketing campaign, even thoug ...
. The first cars manufactured by AvtoVAZ were produced with technical assistance from
Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...
and marketed under the Zhiguli designation. The Lada brand appeared in 1973, initially being overseas-focused before becoming AvtoVAZ's main brand for all markets in the 1990s.
Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...
took control of the brand in 2016. Technical assistance from the French company started in 2008, after it acquired a minority AvtoVAZ stake. Lada was re-acquired by the Russian government in 2022. Outside of the Eastern Bloc, Ladas were aimed squarely at the budget end of the market, where they were often as little as half the price of contemporary Western vehicles of the period. Lada vehicles are positioned as affordable and offering good
value for money In economics, economic value is a measure of the benefit provided by a good or service to an economic agent, and value for money represents an assessment of whether financial or other resources are being used effectively in order to secure such ...
. To this day, confirmed by many sources, Lada remains by far the best-selling car in the Russian market.


History


Soviet era

Automaker
AvtoVAZ AvtoVAZ ( rus, АвтоВАЗ, p=ɐftɐˈvas) is a Russian automobile manufacturing company owned by the state. It was formerly named as VAZ (), an acronym for Volga Automotive Plant in Russian (). AvtoVAZ is best known for its flagship series of ...
was formed from a collaboration between
Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...
and the Soviet Vneshtorg (Department of Foreign Trade), and is based in the city of
Tolyatti Tolyatti or Togliatti ( , ; , ), known before 1964 as Stavropol, is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Samara Oblast, Russia. It is the largest city in Russia which is neither the administrative center of a federal subjects of Rus ...
on the Volga River. Both sides discussed the proposal in Moscow, where
Gianni Agnelli Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli (; 12 March 192124 January 2003), nicknamed ("The Lawyer"), was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat S.p.A., Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial ...
, company owner and nephew of the founder of Fiat, and
Vittorio Valletta Vittorio Valletta (28 July 1883 – 10 August 1967) was an Italian industrialist and president of Fiat S.p.A. from 1946 to 1966. Early life Born at Sampierdarena near Genoa, he was the son of Federico Valletta, of Brindisi origin (Pale ...
, the president of the company, had arrived from Italy. The first preliminary agreement was signed on 1 July 1965. On 4 May 1966, the Soviet minister of the
automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, Maintenance, repairing, and Custom car, modification of motor ve ...
Alexander Tarasov and Vittorio Valletta put their signatures on a protocol on the scientific and technical cooperation between Fiat and the Soviet ministry. Eventually, a general agreement between the two sides was signed in Moscow on 15 August 1966.Ред. Маслов, Г.В.; Мирзоев, Г.К.; Котляров, В.А. Высокой мысли пламень. Управление главного конструктора АВТОВАЗ. Тольятти: АВТОВАЗ. Часть первая. 2000 (Official chronicle by AvtoVAZ with memoirs of its engineers) Fiat's subsidiary
Comau Comau S.p.A. (''Consorzio Macchine Utensili'') is an Italian multinational company in the automation field based in Turin, Italy. It is a part of the automaker Stellantis. The company is present in 13 countries and employs 4,000 people. Comau pr ...
supplied many of the automation systems in the plant. The company began producing the
VAZ-2101 The VAZ-2101 ''" Zhiguli"'', commonly nicknamed ''" Kopeyka"'' (for the smallest Soviet coin, 1/100 of the Russian ruble), is a compact 4-door sedan or wagon, called ''small class, passenger car, model 1'' in Soviet classification, and produced ...
in 1970, which was a more rugged version of the
Fiat 124 The Fiat 124 is a small family car manufactured and marketed by Italian company Fiat between 1966 and 1974. The saloon superseded the Fiat 1300 and spawned station wagon, four-seater coupé (Fiat 124 Sport Coupé, 124 Sport Coupé), and two-seate ...
sedan. The car was given heavier steel body panels and strengthened components, which improved reliability on bumpy roads and in the harsh winters of the Soviet Union. The first cars manufactured by AvtoVAZ with technical assistance from Fiat were marketed under the Zhiguli designation, allegedly chosen after it was suggested by designer, A. M. Cherny. When the cars began to be exported on foreign markets, the Zhiguli designation was found to be inappropriate, as it was hard to pronounce for non-Russian speakers, and it was said to resemble the word ''
gigolo A gigolo ( ) is a male escort, call boy or social companion who is supported by a person in a continuing relationship. The term ''gigolo'' usually implies a man who adopts a lifestyle consisting of a number of such relationships serially rat ...
'' too closely. Lada become the brand for export markets. Due to the scarcity of auto-repair shops in the Soviet Union, Ladas were designed to be easily maintained by their owners. The rugged Lada was popular in Europe, Canada, and South America for customers looking for more affordable alternatives to local brands, and sales of the new cars were extremely successful, reaching as far as New Zealand. In the West, their construction was frequently described as cheap, and that inspired jokes at the car's expense; nonetheless, Lada "gained a reputation as a maker of solid, unpretentious, and reliable cars for motorists who wanted to drive on a budget."Lada // Andy Thompson. Cars of the Soviet Union, Haynes Publishing, 2008. The Lada brand appeared in 1973, and it has since become the main brand for AvtoVAZ vehicles. Since the original Fiat engine did not have any space for modernization, it was replaced with a new
overhead camshaft An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine in which the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustio ...
engine. The car was equipped with rugged
drum brakes A drum brake is a brake that uses friction caused by a set of shoes or pads that press outward against a rotating bowl-shaped part called a brake drum. The term ''drum brake'' usually means a brake in which shoes press on the inner surface o ...
on the rear, as the latter proved to be more reliable on poor roads. More reliable and up-to-date front and rear suspension with increased ground clearance, a modernized transmission, and recessed door handles were also fitted. The work on the new car was conducted by joint groups of NAMI and Fiat engineers, who worked together in Turin and Tolyatti. By the spring of 1970, AvtoVAZ had formed its own team of designers and engineers and worked independently. After having built several prototypes and experimental vehicles, AvtoVAZ designers launched the first car entirely of their design, the VAZ-2121 Niva, in 1977.


Post-Soviet era

The 110-series sedan was introduced in 1995, two years after its original 1993 deadline. Development costs for the car were estimated at $2 billion. The 2111 station wagon followed in 1998 and the 2112 hatchback completed the range in 2001. A five-door version of the Niva, the VAZ-2131, was introduced in 1995. However, by 1997, Lada was forced to withdraw from most Western European markets due to tightening emission and safety legislation. Also, the rapid rise of Pacific Rim marques such as
Hyundai Hyundai is a former South Korean industrial conglomerate ("''chaebol''"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Asan, a real estate construction ...
, Kia, and
Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...
in the 1990s began to take over the budget sector of the market, in which Lada had survived since the 1970s, which also contributed to the marque's eventual demise in the West. The VAZ-2120 Nadezhda, a minivan based on the Lada Niva, was introduced in 1998. In the second half of the 1990s, efforts were made to improve build quality, but in 1999, nearly 50,000 instances occurred of cars being assembled with missing parts. The introduction of the new
Kalina Kalina may refer to: People * Kalina people The Kalina, also known as the Caribs or mainland Caribs and by several other names, are an Indigenous people native to the northern coastal areas of South America. Today, the Kalina live largely in ...
B-segment The B-segment is the second smallest of the European segments for passenger cars between the A-segment and C-segment, and commonly described as "small cars". The B-segment is the third largest segment in Europe by volume, accounting for 15.5% ...
lineup to the market occurred in 2005. AutoVAZ built a new, modern plant for this model, hoping to sell some 200,000 cars annually. The Kalina had been originally designed in the early 1990s, and its launch was repeatedly delayed, exemplifying the company's difficulty in bringing products to market in time. In March 2007, Lada launched the Priora, a restyled and modernised 110-series model. In March 2008, Renault purchased a minority 25% stake in AvtoVAZ in a
US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
1 billion deal, with
Rostec Rostec, formally trading as State Corporation "Rostec", fully the State Corporation for the Promotion of the Development, Manufacture, and Export of High Tech Products "Rostec" and formerly Rostekhnologii, is a Russian State corporation (Russia), ...
retaining the remaining 75%. Sales of the
Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...
, a
subcompact car Subcompact car is a North American Car classification, classification for cars smaller than a compact car. It is broadly equivalent to the B-segment (Europe), supermini (Great Britain) or A0-class (China) classifications. According to the Unite ...
developed in collaboration with Renault, started in December 2011. The Largus, another vehicle with Renault technology, was launched in the Russian market by the middle of July 2012. In August 2012, the XRAY concept car was launched at the Moscow International Automobile Salon. The XRAY was designed by then-chief designer
Steve Mattin Stephen Mattin (born 29 October 1964) is a British automobile designer. He is known as the chief designer of AvtoVAZ Lada, as well as the designer of Mercedes ML-Class and GL-Class E vehicles. Personal background Steve Mattin was born in Be ...
, formerly of
Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...
and
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...
. The second generation of the Lada Kalina, basically a facelifted first generation, was also revealed at the 2012 Moscow International Motor Show. The Kalina is also produced as the more powerful version named Lada Kalina Sport. Production of the Vesta, based on a new B\C platform developed by AvtoVAZ in cooperation with the Renault-Nissan Alliance, started on 25 September 2015, at Lada Izhevsk manufacturing site. For the first time in Lada history, only a year had passed between the concept car and the start of production. In 2016, after various acquisitions, Renault became the parent company of AvtoVAZ and took control of Lada. The XRAY, based on a
Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus ro ...
platform, was the first compact city crossover in the company's history. Sales started on 14 February 2016. In January 2021, after a company revamp, Renault said it would integrate Lada and sister brand Dacia into a Lada-Dacia business unit. In May 2022, due to the ongoing
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
, Renault sold its controlling stake to a state-owned entity, NAMI, for one symbolic Ruble. The deal, however, included various opportunities within a six year window for Renault to buy back its assets. Following the sale, production of all the more modern (with many overseas components) models ceased. After three months of no car production, Lada's parent, AvtoVAZ, resumed production of older models such as the Niva and a simplified version of the Granta. More advanced models were not able to be produced due to strict sanctions imposed on Russia due to the invasion. In April 2023, Lada announced that a locally modified version of the Vesta (Vesta NG) was ready for mass assembly. ''
Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...
'' reported that as a result of international sanctions imposed following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lada switched to producing vehicles with no airbags, similar to new cars in Latin America, including the
Kia Rio The Kia Rio () is a subcompact car manufactured by Kia from 1999 to 2023. Body styles have included a three and five-door hatchback and four-door sedan, equipped with inline-four gasoline and diesel engines, and front-wheel drive. The Rio ...
,
Kia Picanto The Kia Picanto is a city car that has been produced by the South Korean car manufacturer, Kia, since 2003. Other names of the car include Kia Morning () in South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan (first two generations) and Chile, Kia EuroStar in Taiwan ...
, Hyundai Grand i10,
Mazda 2 is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. The company was founded on January 30, 1920, as Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., a cork-making factory, by Jujiro Matsuda. The company then acquired Ab ...
,
Chevrolet Spark The Chevrolet Spark () is a city car manufactured by General Motors's subsidiary GM Korea from 1998 to 2022. The vehicle was developed by Daewoo and introduced in 1998 as the Daewoo Matiz (). In 2002, General Motors purchased Daewoo Motors, which ...
and the
Chevrolet Onix The Chevrolet Onix is a subcompact car launched by American automaker Chevrolet in Brazil at the 2012 São Paulo International Motor Show and the second generation in China at the 2019 Shanghai Auto Show. In Brazil, it was launched to repla ...
, as neither the frontal airbag nor anti-lock braking systems (ABS) in new cars are compulsory in many Latin American countries.


Branding

The first official logo for AvtoVAZ was introduced in 1970. It was used by all its products irrespective of under which name they were marketed. This logo consisted of an upright, shield-like badge with a stylized Viking boat inside. In the mid-1990s, the company introduced a new logo, this time with a horizontal ellipse-like layout, still keeping the boat inside it. The logo design was maintained while being updated in 2002 and 2015. In 2004, AvtoVAZ officially ended the use of multiple designations for the Russian market, unifying from then on, all its products under the Lada brand. It also established the use of the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...
in that market to write both the Lada name and its model nameplates on cars, as well as marketing and documentation material.


Present models

*
Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...
# Granta sedan # Granta Sportline # Granta liftback # Granta Cross # Granta Sport * Vesta # Vesta sedan # Vesta Cross # Vesta SW # Vesta SW Cross # Vesta Sportline # Vesta SW Cross ''Black Limited Edition'' # Vesta NG * Largus # Largus Universal # Largus Universal CNG # Largus Cross # Largus Cross CNG # Largus Wagon # Largus Wagon CNG *Niva # Niva Travel - former GM Niva varianthttp://info.avtovaz.ru/press-releases/117703.html Niva возвращается в семью LADA! (EN:Niva returns to the Lada family) # Niva Legend - the original Lada Niva *
Iskra ''Iskra'' (, , ''the Spark'') was a fortnightly political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). History ''Iskra'' was published in exile and then smuggl ...


See also

* Automobile model numbering system in USSR and Russia *
List of AvtoVAZ vehicles This is a list of vehicles designed or produced by AvtoVAZ, a Russian carmaker best known under its Lada brand. Current models Historic models Racing, experimental or future models Racing models Experimental models Index designati ...
* AvtoVAZ vehicles in international markets


Notes


References


External links

* {{Automotive industry in Russia 1973 establishments in Russia * Car brands Car manufacturers of Russia Cars introduced in 1973 Rostec Russian brands Soviet brands