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Today, on December 13, KAMAZ is celebrating the 52^nd anniversary of the start of construction of its facilities in Naberezhnye Chelny.

By the mid ‘60s of the last century, it had been as difficult as never before to transport cargoes by truck. The demand was for brand new and up-to-date trucks – comfortable, powerful, multipurpose, efficient in any climatic and road conditions. At that time, the Russian government argued about the location of a new truck maker. At first, they considered eight sites, but then only two of them. Finally, they decided to erect the largest truck producing plant in Naberezhnye Chelny. December 13, 1969 is the day when the first bucket of earth was excavated at the construction site of the future KAMAZ plant. This date is traditionally considered to be the birthday of the automaker.

The number of plants on the Kama River occupies a vast territory of 57 square kilometers. KAMAZ received the latest technological equipment of that time. More than 700 foreign companies were involved in equipping the KAMAZ facilities. The plant was built in record time. Only seven years passed from this milestone, the start of KAMAZ history, to the first KAMAZ trucks rolling down from the conveyor. It took another four years to complete the planned construction of all production facilities.

The 52^nd birthday of KAMAZ sees the company’s good production, financial and economic performance. Thus, within eleven months of 2021, KAMAZ produced 39,658 vehicles, which is a 20.6% y-o-y growth. At the same time, the company’s plants continue large-scale updating. New KAMAZ vehicles and dump trucks of the K5 generation joined the company’s line. To add to this, a line of innovative electric passenger vehicles is expanding. This year, KAMAZ introduced not only highly demanded models of electric buses and trolleybuses, but also developed a leading-edge vehicle – the first hydrogen fuel cell bus.

In eleven months of 2021, KAMAZ produced 39,658 vehicles, which is a 20.6 percent growth year-over-year.

In November, KAMAZ produced 4,152 assembly kits (last year’s figure is 3,307 units), and since the beginning of the year – 39,658 assembly kits (32,880 units, +20.6% YoY). KAMAZ also increased the rate of engine production compared to last year: the main vehicle assembly line and external customers received 4,448 engines and power units (3,744 units within the corresponding period last year) in November, and a total of 43,286 engines and power units (36,534 units, +18.5% YoY) from the engine plant and JV CUMMINS KAMA.

KAMAZ’s dealers, service centers, corporate and other clients received spare parts worth 2.94 billion rubles in November (2.33 billion rubles for the same period last year), since the beginning of the year – for the total sum of 27.96 billion rubles (22.36 billion rubles, +25% YoY).

KAMAZ hosted a meeting on the NGV market development with the participation of Yury Borisov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

The meeting was also attended by Viktor Zubkov, Chairman of the Gazprom Board of Directors, Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Albert Karimov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Tatarstan, Sergey Kogogin, General Director of KAMAZ PTC, and others.

It was announced at the meeting that today the transport industry, primarily the automobile industry, is at the stage of a global transition to new energy sources: natural gas, electricity, hydrogen. “A number of factors make NGV fuel the most promising substitute for diesel fuel and gasoline due to its low cost, and in contrast to other types of green fuel – due to the cost of switching to it,” said Yury Borisov.

According to him, the NGV fleet in Russia increased from 93 thousand to 227 thousand vehicles in three years. At the same time, the number of gas filling infrastructure facilities increased from 298 to 650 units. The sale of natural gas as motor fuel increased from 560 million cubic meters up to 1.3 billion cubic meters. “In practice, the state provides assistance, first of all, through subsidizing both manufacturers and users of NGVs. This is probably not enough, additional efforts and government assistance are needed in this industry,” Yuri Borisov said following the meeting on the development of the Russian gas engine market.

He also added that Russian automakers could bring to market almost the entire line of necessary NGVs: cars, trucks, buses. “The question is about the mass, large-scale introduction of these vehicles into the market. For this, of course, it is necessary to strengthen measures of state support, although it cannot be said that nothing is being done,” the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation emphasized mentioning that the government had adopted a roadmap for the introduction of low-tonnage production of natural gas and NGVs until 2025. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, 3.3 billion rubles are allocated annually to support the purchase of NGVs in Russia.

In addition, during the visit to KAMAZ, the members of the delegation visited the production facilities of the top Russian truck maker. They visited the cab frame plant and the gas vehicles unit. The guests were also shown the cab assembly conveyor, the main assembly conveyor at the automobile plant and modern KAMAZ vehicles from the company’s wide product line.