The history of theZaporizhzhia Automobile Building Plant (ZAZ) began even before the first automobile was invented. At the end of the 19th century, industrialist Abraham Koop founded a company specializing in the production of agricultural machinery.
In 1923, the plant was renamed "Kommunar", and in 1929, the first combine harvester in Ukraine was produced there. Prior to that, they were imported from the United States.
Until 1959, the company produced agricultural machinery, but in October 1960, the first model of the famous "Zaporozhets" - the ZAZ-965 - was introduced. Its prototype was the Italian "Fiat-600". The car was considered a people's car - it was affordable and reliable enough. On January 8, 1976, the one millionth "Zaporozhets" rolled off the assembly line at the factory.
In 1973, the first electric car in Ukraine was created at the plant. It could accelerate to 60 km/h in 8 seconds and travel up to 100 km on a single battery charge. Although the car never made it into mass production, ZAZ was decades ahead of Tesla.
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