Ukravtobusprom

1964-1991

In 1964-1965, the design department of the Lviv Bus Plant, together with the experimental workshop of LAZ, was separated from the enterprise and transformed into the Head Union Design Bureau for medium and high-capacity city buses ^[1] . The presence of an experimental workshop made it possible to independently produce prototypes of experimental buses.

Among the first independent works of GSKB are modernized versions of the LAZ-695 and LAZ-697 buses (LAZ-695M and LAZ-697M) ^[2] and the experimental city bus LAZ-698 created in 1966. In 1968, an experimental low-floor bus LAZ-360 was created here, in 1969 - an experimental low-floor bus LAZ-360E ^[3] .

In 1970, the Lviv GSKB and the laboratory of electric drives of the Central Scientific Research Automobile and Automotive Institute developed and built an experimental low-floor 11-meter four-axle city bus LAZ-360EM ^[4] .

In 1974, the institute began designing the first four special LAZ buses for the delivery of astronauts to the Baikonur Cosmodrome ^[3] .

In 1975, GSKB was transformed into the All-Union Design and Experimental Institute of Bus Engineering (VKEI).

In the mid-1970s, the VKEI began work on creating a new unified family of buses (which included the average city bus LAZ-4202 , suburban bus LAZ-42021, large city buses LiAZ-5256 and LiAZ-5256M and tourist LAZ-5255 ) ^{[ 5]} .

In 1978, under the leadership of Ya. D. Galkevich, the first two shift buses were created - on the GAZ-66-96 and Ural-375 chassis ^[3] .

In 1982-1983 21-seater bus TS-3965 was developed on the GAZ-53 chassis.

In 1984-1985 the first serial gaseous-fuel Soviet bus was created - LAZ-695NG , also experimental LAZ-4206 (to replace LAZ-695N) and LAZ-4207 (to replace LAZ-699R); under the leadership of A.V. Chankov, together with ZiU , work was underway to create a new family of trolleybuses, as much as possible unified with LiAZ-5256; began designing a fundamentally new 114-seater large-class bus ^[3] .

Since 1988, in order to increase the reliability of the electric network, on new buses of VKEI, wire harnesses were started to be placed in protective corrugated tubes. The first bus models to which this solution was applied were the LAZ-4206 and LAZ-4207 ^[6] .

In 1990 ^[3] -1991, a small class bus 4209 was created on the ZIL-4333 chassis, a middle class bus 42091 on the ZIL-4331 chassis ^[7] , the Kiparis mobile television station on the KamAZ-53213 chassis and an experimental 180-seat articulated trolley bus ^[8] .

Also, in 1991, VKEI completed the design of a suburban modification of LiAZ-5256 with a manual gearbox and a modified brake system (during the design, this bus passed under the name of a large-capacity suburban bus 52565 ^[9] , but was manufactured under the name LiAZ-52565) ^[10] .

After 1991

After the independence of Ukraine, the institute received a new name ("Ukravtobusprom") ^[1] and became the country's main scientific center for the development of new bus models ^[11] .

By 1992, the Institute continued to develop an articulated bus 6210, a large-capacity trolleybus 5257 and trolley-buses 6201 and 6204 ^[10] .

In 1993, the institute developed a KAMAZ-5262 bus project for the Kama Automobile Plant.

In May 1995, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine included the plant in the list of enterprises subject to privatization during 1995 ^[12] .

In the late 1990s , it was decided to use its capacities for the production of its own buses under the Tour brand ^[13] . But the models have not found a mass consumer in the Ukrainian market.

In 1997, a half-decker tourist bus was developed on the Scania K94B chassis (offered to customers in two versions: Tour A171 and Tour A172 - with a 340-horsepower Deutz engine or 364-horsepower DAF engine) ^[14] , built in one copy ^[1] .

In 1998, the 12-meter experimental city bus Tour A181 was developed (which was planned to be produced at the Yuzhmash Dnepropetrovsk plant) ^[13] .

At the turn of the 1990s ^[15] - 2000s, Ukravtobusprom began to develop a lineup of buses on the Isuzu chassis manufactured by Bogdan Corporation ^[16] .

At the beginning of 2001, the institute began to cooperate with the car repair company Stryy Avto , which mastered the small-scale production of minibuses ^[15] . Also, in 2001, a new 12-meter Tour A-174 coach bus was assembled on the Scania K941B truck chassis ^[13] .

December 23, 2004 Ukravtobusprom was included in the list of enterprises of strategic importance for the economy and security of Ukraine ^[17] .

In 2005, Ukravtobusprom began mass production of the 18-seater Tour A049 minibus on the chassis of the Russian Gazelle . By the beginning of April 2008, about 70 of them were released ^[18] ; by the end of February 2009, 350 Tour A049 ^{[19] were released} . “Tour A049” in many ways resembles the BAZ-2215 Dolphin model, which was produced by the Etalon Corporation in series , which is not surprising since both cars were designed at Ukravtobusprom OJSC, whose specialists also developed other models of buses manufactured by Etalon Corporation ^[20] .

In 2006, work was completed on the creation of a specialized school bus and the first Tour A078 school bus was built on the ZIL-5301 EO chassis ^[13] .

Also, in 2005-2006. Ukravtobusprom together with the Zaporizhzhya Automobile Plant developed a small-class bus model ZAZ A07A1 I-VAN on an Indian-made TATA LPT-613 chassis (I-VAN production began in the spring of 2006 at the Zaporizhzhya Automobile Plant) ^[21] .

In the second half of the 2000s, the position of Ukravtobusprom was complicated due to the reduction of orders (the creation of their own design bureaus by the Bogdan and Etalon corporations terminated their cooperation with Ukravtobusprom). As a result, in 2007 Ukravtobusprom completed a loss of UAH 1,092 million ^[11] .

In February 2008, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to sell 39.35% of the company's shares in state ownership for 320,796 hryvnias ^[22] . The economic crisis that began in 2008 complicated the situation of the enterprise (in 2008 the institute’s revenues amounted to 10 million hryvnias and in 2008 Ukravtobusprom completed a loss of 3 thousand hryvnias) and led to a decrease in its investment attractiveness, as a result of the sale of the state-owned stake in Ukravtobusprom was postponed ^[11] .

During 2009, the enterprise practically did not work ^[11] (an experimental batch of five Tour A097 buses was built on the chassis of the Chinese truck FAW CA 1061) ^[19] and ended 2009 with a loss of 335 thousand hryvnias. On October 27, 2010, the State Property Fund of Ukraine again announced the sale of 39.35% of state shares of Ukravtobusprom ^[23] (by this time the remaining 60% of the shares had already been distributed among the employees of the enterprise, while the head of the board Lyubomyr Kraynik owned the most significant stake in the amount of 5.1% of the shares) ^[11] .

In 2012, the Tour A407 bus was created on the Mercedes-Benz Vario chassis ^[24] .

In 2013, a city bus was created on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis ^[25] .

In 2015 ^[26] , 2016 ^[27] and 2017, the company did not produce a single unit of automotive equipment ^[28] .

As of 2018, Ukravtobusprom had the opportunity to produce Tour A049 minibuses on the Gazelles chassis and Tour A407 minibuses on the Daimler-Benz Vario chassis, as well as multifunctional vans - semitrailers 9902 , 99021 , 99022 for truck tractors ^[29] .

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  Tour A091 was released as Bogdan A091

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  Tour-A079 is available as a BAZ A079

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  A144 tour is released as Bogdan A144

• O. Z. Gorbay (VKEI). Composites in bus manufacturing // Automotive Industry Journal, No. 10, 1992. pp. 34-37

• Official site