On February 16, 1976, the first KAMAZ truck rolled off the main conveyor of the truck assembly plant. This became a major event within six years of the auto giant construction and a vivid historical fact for the top Russian truck maker and one of the world’s top auto producers.
In the 1960s, Russia faced an acute shortage of heavy-duty trucks. It was decided to build a new auto plant. The production of KAMAZ trucks was organized as quickly as possible. On December 13, 1969, the construction of the auto plant was started, and as early as on February 16, 1976, the first vehicle came off the main assembly line.
The first honorary crew of the high-sided KAMAZ-5320 truck which was numbered 000001 consisted of test driver Valery Peretolchin, installer Dmitry Zagrebelny, worker of KAMGESENERGOSTROY Rafis Sabirzyanov.
The first KAMAZ truck has survived to the present day. Having rolled off the conveyor, it was delivered to a customer, was working for a long time in Bashkortostan, later was bought out by KAMAZ and restored. Now this is one of the most precious exhibits at the Museum of KAMAZ PTC.
As early as in June 1979, the 100,000th truck rolled off the main conveyor. Production growth at KAMAZ was unprecedented for the USSR and world record breaking.
To date, KAMAZ PTC is a recognized leader of the Russian market not only by product deliveries, but also by state-of-the-art technologies applied. For these years, more than 2.3 million vehicles have been produced. KAMAZ trucks operate in more than 80 countries.
The company is actively designing and producing vehicles on a par with trucks of foreign make. A line of K5 generation trucks is expanding. Self-driving trucks, NGVs, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are being developed there.
KAMAZ is upgrading production processes at its premises, mastering new technologies and areas of work. Increasing sales of trucks on the domestic market contribute to spreading a dealer network. KAMAZ trucks are available in each Russian region.
Production performance is evidence to the fact that buyers are interested in KAMAZ trucks. Thus, in 2021, 44,136 units were produced, which is an 18% y-o-y increase (37,345 units for the same period last year). The company made 47,949 engines and power units (last year’s figures are 40,848 units, +17%). Spare parts were shipped for 2021 to the tune of 30.7 billion roubles (compare with last year’s 25.04 billion roubles, +22.6%).
According to the approved 2022 business plan, KAMAZ PTC plans to sell this year 45 thousand units of trucks, of them 39 thous. on the Russian market, 6 thous. for export. The volume of investments in 2022 is expected to reach 17 billion roubles. They include 12.6 billion roubles to be allocated for the development of a product range, and more than 1 billion roubles for R&D.