Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ) is one of the largest state machine-building enterprises in Eastern Europe, specializing in the production of heavy-duty and special vehicles, buses, trolleybuses, and trailers. The plant was established in 1944 in Belarus, which was then a part of the Soviet Union.
Cargo Vehicles
Cargo vehicles produced by the plant include truck tractors, on-board vehicles, medium-duty low-frame vehicles, dump trucks, logging trucks, sorting trucks, off-road vehicles, and chassis vehicles for the complete set of all types of special equipment and installations.
Six generations of heavy-duty trucks have been mass-produced at the plant. Trailer trains have been also produced at the plant to date.
As for the new products, in 2014, a prototype of the MAZ-5440M9 truck tractor with an engine which meets Euro-6 environmental standards was presented. The enterprise launched its small-scale production at the end of April 2018.
In 2019, the MAZ-3650 cargo van (a low-tonnage truck) and the MAZ-281 minibus were unveiled, assembled from Chinese JAC Motors car kits.
Passenger Vehicles
In 1992, a branch of MAZ called AMAZ was established, which focused on mastering the production of modern passenger buses. At the beginning of its activity, AMAZ produced buses MAZ-101, MAZ-103, and MAZ-104, and for use on busy inner-city routes, MAZ-105 and the elongated MAZ-107 with high passenger capacity.
Among the second-generation buses of this plant, characterized by a fiberglass body with painted panels, glued glasses, and lens optics, are the MAZ-256, MAZ-203, MAZ-206, MAZ-226, and others.
The plant has mastered the production of the intercity bus MAZ-152, the tourist bus MAZ-251, and the airport bus MAZ-171. In 2018, the production of the particularly large-capacity bus MAZ-216 was launched. In 2019, the third-generation bus MAZ-303 was introduced.
The first electric bus, MAZ-303E10, was developed by the Minsk Automobile Plant in 2020. Since 1999, the plant has also been producing trolleybuses.
In 2021, passenger vehicles (the firm's electric bus and the MAZ-271 apron bus) brought MAZ a victory in the international business award for Leader of the Year. AMAZ's products are sold mainly to Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, and abroad. Each of them accounts for an average of 25% of sales.
The MAZ brand is well known in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and abroad. MAZ cars have been exported to more than 45 countries around the world.