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Soviet Union [USSR] The Automotive Industry
The Soviet automotive industry has developed on a much smaller
scale than its United States counterpart. Although production grew
rapidly during the 1970s and 1980s, the industry's close connection
with the military made some production data inaccessible. From 1970
to 1979, automobile production grew by nearly 1 million units per
year, and truck production grew by 250,000 per year. The production
ratio of automobiles to trucks increased in that time from 0.7 to
1.7, indicating that more attention was being given to the consumer
market.
Automobile production was concentrated in four facilities: the
Volga (in Tol'yatti), Gor'kiy, Zaporozh'ye, and Likhachev (Moscow)
plants
(see
fig. 15). The Volga plant was built in the late 1960s
especially for passenger automobiles; by 1975 it was making half
the Soviet total. The Likhachev and Gor'kiy plants, both in
operation for more than fifty years, made automobiles and trucks.
Truck production was less centralized, with plants in Kutaisi
(Georgian Republic), the Urals, Tiraspol (Moldavian Republic),
Kremenchug (Ukrainian Republic), Minsk (Belorussian Republic),
Mytishchi (Moscow area), and Naberezhnyye Chelny (eastern Russian
Republic), the site of the large showpiece Kama plant built in the
late 1970s. The Volga and Kama plants were located away from the
established population centers; in both cases, new towns were built
for transplanted workers. Long-term truck planning (through the
year 2000) emphasized large capacity, fuel economy, and service
life; the last two qualities were deficient in earlier models. The
drive for fuel economy has encouraged the use of natural and
liquefied gas. Heavy truck and trailer production was to occupy
more than 40 percent of the truck industry by 1990, doubling
tractor-trailer production. Vehicle parts plants were widely
dispersed in the European sector of the country. Policy for the
Soviet automotive industry has emphasized two divergent goals:
increasing the supply of private automobiles as a symbol of
attention to the consumer; and supporting heavy industry with
improved equipment for heavy transport and material handling.
Data as of May 1989
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