Yerevan Automobile Plant

On December 31, 1964, the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR issued Decree No. 1084 “On the organization of a plant for the production of vans with a loading capacity of 0.8-1.0 tons in the buildings of the“ Auto-loader ”plant in Yerevan”. On September 10, 1965, the plant was named “Yerevan Automobile Plant”.

During 1965, 66 employees underwent training at the Riga RAF and Ulyanovsk UAZ . In April 1966, according to the RAF documentation, the first 2 vans of the ErAZ-762 model were assembled, which was developed in Riga as the RAF-977 K, but was not mastered there due to the lack of free production capacities. In fact, the RAF-977K, like the ErAZ-762, was a RAF-977D without windows and seats in the back.

During 1966, production facilities were put into operation, designed for the annual production of up to 400 motor vans. In December of the same year, the first 36 serial cars of YERAZ-762 were manufactured. By 1968, the annual output was 1,000 vans.

In September 1971, the production of the upgraded ErAZ-762A model began (it was distinguished by punching in the form of windows resembling RAF-977DM), which was replaced by ErAZ-762B in 1976 (convex side stiffening ribs were added), and in 1979 - ErAZ-762B (lateral the ribs became concave, a more powerful 85-horsepower engine from GAZ-24-01 appeared , instead of the 75-strong one from GAZ-21 ). On the basis of the latter, the ErAZ-762R refrigerator, the ErAZ-762VGP cargo-passenger (five-seater) van (since 1988), and the “ErAZ-762VDP” two-cab (five-seater) airborne light truck were manufactured in small batches.

In April 1982, the 100,000th ^[1] ErAZ van was produced. In 1987, a record annual output was reached - 16 111 cars.

In the 1980s, the plant began reconstruction for the development of a new model of a modern design van, the ErAZ-3730 , as well as the ErAZ-37301 refrigerator and the ErAZ -3218 minibus based on it. However, begun only in 1995, although their production supplanted the obsolete ErAZ-762 in 1996, it did not become as widespread as before.

In 1995, the plant was privatized , reorganized into the Joint-Stock Company YERAZ.

In 2000, it was planned to launch production of VAZ cars at the plant’s facilities ^[2] .

In November 2002, YERAZ OJSC, by a decision of the Economic Court of the Republic of Armenia, was declared bankrupt at the request of creditors, production at this enterprise was stopped.

• History of Yerevan Automobile Plant (ex. Yeraz.auto.am)
• YERAZ: what did the Yerevan Automobile Plant produce? // Popular Mechanics , January 2018