Russia’s largest heavy truck manufacturer celebrates its anniversary today

Photo: Rostec State Corporation

The first bucket of soil was excavated at the Kama Automobile Plant project site in Naberezhnye Chelny fifty five years ago on 13 December 1969. It is now an enormous holding included in Rostec State corporation that produces a wide range of motor vehicles: long-haul trucks, dump trucks, buses, electric buses and special vehicles. KAMAZ group encompasses several plants and more than 100 companies in Russia and abroad. We have collected interesting facts about KAMAZ — the plant, vehicles and people.

The project in Naberezhnye Chelny gathered hundreds of thousands of workers and specialists from more than 70 ethnic groups. More than 2000 contractors from across the country worked on the KAMAZ construction site. Equipment and technologies were provided by 700 foreign companies.

Photo: KAMAZ

In 1988, the company celebrated a significant anniversary — production of the one millionth truck. According to expert estimates, KAMAZ completely paid off all investment during the first ten years of operation.

Photo: KAMAZ

ZIL plant had been already working on the design of the first KAMAZ truck before the start of construction in Naberezhnye Chelny. The International COF-220, an obsolete American model, was used as the basis. The ZIL-170 prototype was prepared in 1969, tested in a rally and demonstrated at VDNH. Commercial production of the truck started under the name KAMAZ-5320.

For sports fans, KAMAZ is a professional football club that bears the plant's name and a stadium of the same name in Naberezhnye Chelny. But primarily this is certainly the iconic KAMAZ-Master — world class vehicles and sportsmen. The team was established in 1988 to demonstrate reliability of trucks during international cross-country rallies. KAMAZ-Master is the 19-time winner of the Dakar Rally and one of the world’s most renowned teams in the truck category. By the way, a miniseries about the team was released in 2021 under Rostec’s sponsorship.

Photo: KAMAZ-master

KAMAZ produced more than 2.5 million trucks and about 3 million engines over its history. Every third 14-40 ton truck in Russia and the CIS countries is a KAMAZ. The vehicles made in Naberezhnye Chelny are used in more than 80 countries.

According to KAMAZ’s statistics, more than 35,000 people work at the plant, which is comparable with the population of such countries as Monaco and Liechtenstein. A total of 60,000 people work at the company group — this is more the population of Greenland.

KAMAZ was the first among Russian manufacturers to start electric bus production in 2017. The KAMAZ-6282 was used to open the electric bus system in Moscow in 2018. More than 2,000 electric KAMAZes currently go over the capital, and they are also used in other cities of the country.

Photo: KAMAZ

After the imposition of sanctions, KAMAZ was able to substitute thousands of components and now satisfies successfully the demand for freight, specialized and passenger vehicles. For example, production of a sanction-resistant version of the KAMAZ-54901 semi-trailer truck — next generation K5 long-haul flagship — was launched in February 2023.

Photo: KAMAZ