On February 6, 1976, the first truck – KAMAZ-5320 rolled off the assembly line of theKama Automobile Plant. Today, a solemn event dedicated to the 45th anniversary of the first KAMAZ truck will be held at the KAMAZ automobile plant.
Tribunes and a mobile stage are installed directly near the main assembly line. President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Director General of KAMAZ PTC Sergey Kogogin, Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Alfiya Kogogina, Chairman of the trade union committee of the company Kirill Puzyrkov will congratulate the auto giant’s team on this significant date. The guests of honor will be Nikolai Bekh and Ivan Kostin, who led the automobile plant in different years. The first Director General of KAMAZ, Lev Vasiliev, won’t be able to come due to his age – on February 7, he celebrated his 96th birthday.
While congratulating KAMAZ employees with the significant date in the corporate media, Sergey Kogogin admitted that throughout history the main point is the collective of the plant, and expressed gratitude to everyone who contributed in the way of KAMAZ to modern stage, and this anniversary event. «I sincerely want to congratulate the company's team on the 45th anniversary of the release of the first KAMAZ truck. My special words of gratitude are addressed to all factory workers who brought the release of the first truck, then the millionth and two-millionth, closer… Thanks also to the new generation of employees who, continuing and multiplying the good traditions of KAMAZ, the accumulated professionalism and experience, implement new projects», - Sergey Kogogin addressed the former and current factory workers.
The veterans-first builders and KAMAZ workers who work today on the auto giant will be honored at the solemn part of the event. A gift to the factory workers will be a performance by the famous Russian virtuoso pianist Denis Matsuev.
The necessity to produce modern trucks matured in the Soviet Union in the 60s of the last century. At that time, the country needed trucks with an increased load capacity of 8 to 20 tons, but none of the existing car factories at that time could cope with such a task. As a result, in August 1969, by Order of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU, was decided to build a complex of automobile plants in Naberezhnye Chelny with a full cycle of the technological chain for the production of heavy-duty vehicles. Plans for the volume of products were serious: 150 thousand trucks and 250 thousand engines annually.
Construction of the full-cycle enterprise, called Kama Automobile Plant (KAMAZ), began on December 13, 1969. On this day, the first bucket of earth was taken out at the construction site of the automobile plant. The Komsomol shock construction project was announced…
The auto giant on Kama was built in record time. A significant part of the equipment for the plant was supplied from abroad. Thus on February 16, 1976, the first –KAMAZ-5320-rolled off the assembly line. Its release was timed to coincide with the XXV Congress of the CPSU, and as a sign of the successful implementation of the party's plans, the first truck under its own power arrived on the Red Square in Moscow. At the wheel of the truck with the factory number 0000001 was the test driver Valery Peretolchin. The firstborn of KAMAZ worked for many years in Bashkortostan, then it was bought, restored and is now a valuable museum exhibit of the auto giant.
From 1976 to 1978, the automobile plant produced three basic models: KAMAZ-5320 truck with a lifting capacity of 8 tons, construction dump truck KAMAZ-5511 with lifting capacity of 10 t and the truck tractor KAMAZ-5410 total weight 26 t. Then were developed a 10-ton truck KAMAZ-53212 with an increased wheelbase to 3690 mm, a 7-ton agricultural dump truck KAMAZ-55102, as well as a semi-trailer for the 33-ton truck train KAMAZ-54112. At the same time, the growth rate of production at KAMAZ was a record: already in June 1979, a hundred thousandth truck rolled off the main assembly line, and by April 1980, 150 thousand heavy trucks had already been produced.
In a new sweep of history, in order to successfully compete with foreign truck manufacturers, KAMAZ began to actively work on expanding the range of products. The first generation of trucks based on the KAMAZ-5320 left the assembly line only in 2000. Now among Russian consumers, trucks of the fourth and fifth generations are in demand.
Today, KAMAZ produces more than 60 basic models and 1,500 complete sets of trucks. In 2020, one of the latest developments of the KAMAZ team was introduced to the market – the KAMAZ-54901 tractor truck, the first representative of the K5 generation trucks.
The production of gas-powered vehicles, the production of drones, the development of electric vehicles – in these areas, KAMAZ not only corresponds to the vector of development of the Russian automotive industry, focused on global trends, but also sets the tone. Thus, for example, the past few years have gone down in the history of KAMAZ PTC with many events that confirm the company's leadership in the field of Russian truck engineering. Among them – the development of popular modifications of trucks on compressed and liquefied natural gas, the development of unmanned vehicles, and the successful execution of large contracts for the supply of KAMAZ electric buses to the capital of Russia.
Today, KAMAZ PTC is a recognized leader of the Russian market not only in the supply of products, but also in the development of the latest technologies. Over the years, more than 2.3 million cars were produced. KAMAZ trucks are operated in more than 80 countries around the world.
In accordance with the business plan, in the year of the anniversary of the first KAMAZ, the company intends to produce and sell 37 thousand trucks. 32 thousand of them will be delivered to the Russian market; the rest will be exported. By plans, the volume of investments in 2021 will be more than 16.7 billion rubles. 13 billion rubles of them will be allocated for the development of the model range, and more than 1 billion for R&D.