The first Ukrainian electric car was produced at the Lviv Bus Plant more than 70 years ago. The van was used to transport mail.
Electric vehicles have been developed in Ukraine for over ten years. Electric models were created at ZAZ in the 70s and 80s, and development of the first Ukrainian electric car began in 1947. It was the LAZ-750 and was even produced in small batches. The history of the electric car is explained on the LAZ Legend website.
The LAZ-750 electric car was jointly developed by the Lviv Bus Plant and the NAMI Research Institute. It was a small mail delivery van. After testing in April 1949, production of the model began.
To facilitate construction, the body of the LAZ-750 is made of wood. The carrying capacity of the minibus was 500 kg. Electric motor with a capacity of 4 liters. With. It was allowed to reach speeds of up to 30 km / h, and lead batteries provided a cruising range of 50-60 km.
In total, about 20 LAZ-750s were produced until 1951, and they were used for mail delivery in Leningrad. Later, an improved version of the LAZ-751 with an 8 hp engine appeared. With. Carrying capacity has increased to 1.5 tons, maximum speed to 35 km/h and cruising range to 60-70 km. Also, some buses were later equipped with iron-nickel batteries – they could travel 140-160 km without recharging.
However, the production of Ukrainian electric vehicles turned out to be very expensive. The cost of a compact minibus was higher than the cost of a GAZ-51 truck with a carrying capacity of 2.5 tons.
The design turned out to be short-lived, as LAZ electric vehicles are wooden. All vans were decommissioned and disposed of, and not a single copy of the first Ukrainian electric car has survived to this day.
Previously Focus talked about the first Ukrainian bus. It was created 100 years ago.
We also wrote that in the early 30s, Ford cars were produced in Kharkov.
Source: Focus
Ray Bly is an accomplished journalist in the field of Automobile. He currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the Automotive industry and a talent for uncovering the latest developments, Ray’s writing provides readers with insightful and informative coverage of the latest news and trends in the field.