IZh (motorcycle)
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Formerly called
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IzhAvto |
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| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 1965 |
| Headquarters | Izhevsk, Russia |
| Parent | AvtoVAZ |
| Website | www |
Lada Izhevsk is a subsidiary of the carmaking company AvtoVAZ based in Izhevsk, Russia. It was formerly a subsidiary of Izmash under the IzhAvto brand, and manufactured both motorcycles and automobiles. The company was given its current name in 2017.
IZh first proposed an automobile in 1958, with a prototype four-wheel drive for rural use, the NAMI 048 Ogonyok. It used a GAZ chassis and a 750 cc (46 cu in) flat-twin engine based on the Ural M72. It was not produced in quantity.
The Izhevsk car factory was established in 1965 with French automaker Renault as the main contractor. The company started on 12 December 1966 with assembling copies of Moskvitch models 408 (as the IZh 408) with parts shipped in. By he end of the year, 300 had been completed, with the number reaching 4,000 by December 1967. In December 1967, the Moskvitch 412 replaced the 408 on the assembly line (as the IZh 412). This was joined by the 434 sedan delivery in 1968, and later by the AZLK-2138 and 2140, until the IZh-2126 Oda (liftback and wagon, the second body style marked as Fabula). The Oda bore a very close resemblance to the Moskvitch AZLK-2141 Aleko, but had a completely different rear-wheel drive design.
Styling began to diverge from the AZLK originals beginning in 1970, when IZh kept two round headlamps instead of adopting Moskvitch's rectangular ones, and got a different grille. In 1971, the IZh-built 412 was redesignated 412IE. The IZh-built 412s had a reputation for being better quality than the Moskvitch originals.
In 1970, IZh designed a prototype five-door hatchback (with the same high liftover) and a delivery on the 412 platform. The delivery in 1972 became the IZh 2715; it was powered by a 1,478 cc (90.2 cu in) inline four, had twin rear doors and a box-like cargo area (akin to a cube van ) and could carry a 350 kg (770 lb) load. It and a pickup (what hot rodders would call a pickoupe), announced as the 27151 in 1974, were very popular, both officially in production until 1997, with the final examples built as late as 2001. Pickups were occasionally bought as far away as South America and South Africa, but were forbidden to private owners in the Soviet Union. The 2715 delivery was used by the Soviet post office. A windowed version with rear bed seats, the 27156, appeared in 1987. Top speed was 109 km/h (68 mph) and "roadholding on wet and slippery roads rather minimal". The hatchback reached the market in 1975 as the 2125 Kombi, and it gave IZh another winning model.
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Wikipedia