The GAZelle («ГАЗель») is a family of light commercial vehicles made by the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ) with a gross weight of 3.5 tonnes, produced since 1994. Series production began on 13 July 1994 — 44 years after the plant had last built one-and-a-half-tonne trucks.[1] It was the GAZelle that pulled the plant out of the crisis of the 1990s.[3]
Why the vehicle was needed
By the early 1990s a gap had opened in the domestic market: the old Soviet vehicle fleet consisted of heavy trucks built for planned freight transport, while the emerging small-scale trade and services sector needed a cheap delivery vehicle. The GAZelle filled this niche almost immediately.[1]
For the plant this proved to be a lifeline: as demand fell for medium-duty trucks and the GAZ-31029 «Volga» passenger car, light commercial vehicles kept selling. In the plant's own history the GAZelle is remembered as the vehicle that saved it.[3]
The family
The base flatbed truck was the GAZ-3302; on the same platform GAZ built the GAZ-2705 van and the GAZ-3221 minibus, while the compact line was made up of the Sobol.[1] Engines were ZMZ petrol units producing 90 to 110 hp and a 95-hp Steyr diesel; payload was 1.5 tonnes, top speed 115 km/h.[1]
Generations
The family went through several generations: the original GAZelle was followed by the GAZelle Business, then the GAZelle NEXT (from 2013) and the GAZelle NN (from 2021).[3] The GAZelle minibus became the standard fixed-route taxi (marshrutka) of Russian cities — including Nizhny Novgorod, where the vehicle is made.
Sources
- autoopt.ru — Autoopt — GAZ-3302 (GAZelle) — description, specifications, history (archived)
- 5koleso.ru — 5 Koleso — Gorky Automobile Plant (archived)