Zaporizhzhia Automobile Plant (ZAZ), part of the UkrAVTO Group, plans to produce 282 buses in 2025, compared to 179 units in 2024, according to Dmitry Kiselevsky, deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development.
“Buses are currently ZAZ’s main product. Significant capacity is also used to produce spare parts (including for export) for passenger cars that were once manufactured in Zaporizhia. Currently, passenger car production has been suspended until the end of the “Euroblach era” in Ukraine,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday after visiting the plant.
Kysilevsky noted that ZAZ has planned to create new modifications of the A08 bus with a modified design that complies with Euro 6 standards for the current year. There are also plans to resume the project for the 12-meter-long A18 bus (1st class).
“A prototype of this bus was already ready last year, but it was hit by rocket fire,” the MP wrote, adding that over the past three years, ZAZ has survived 16 rocket strikes, and one of the rockets hit the beginning of the bus assembly line.
“The Zaporizhzhia workers simply separated the impact site, moved the surviving equipment, and continued working,” Kysilevsky wrote.
According to him, the continuation of the car plant’s work, despite the rocket strikes and the proximity of the front line, is the result of two programs: localization (a requirement for public procurement of equipment to ensure at least 25% Ukrainian content) and “School Bus” (an annual targeted program for the purchase of transport for educational institutions).
The average level of localization in ZAZ buses is 48%, the MP added.
“Despite the war, the legendary ZAZ remains a powerful and ambitious enterprise. Although it now employs around 500 workers, rather than 5,000 as before, it continues to impress with its size and potential. The plant has agreements with several foreign partners to resume production of light vehicles as soon as the war ends,” Kysilevsky said.
ZAZ manufactures buses on Chinese AsiaStar chassis.
According to the Clarity Project, in 2024, ZAZ LLC received a net profit of UAH 1.4 million, compared to a loss of UAH 154.6 million in 2023, with revenue growing by 85% to UAH 570.2 million.
As reported, 1,296 new buses were produced in Ukraine in 2024, 24% more than a year earlier.
BUSES, UkrAVTO Group, Zaporizhzhia Automobile Building Plant
