What was the first Ukrainian electric car (photo)
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The first Ukrainian electric car was produced at the Lviv Bus Plant more than 70 years ago. The van was used to transport mail.
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Electric vehicles have been developed in Ukraine for decades. Electric models were created in the 70s and 80s at ZAZ, and the first Ukrainian electric car began to be developed back in 1947. It was the LAZ-750, and it was even produced in small batches. The history of the electric car was told on the LAZ Legend website.
The LAZ-750 electric car was developed jointly by the Lviv Bus Plant and the NAMI Research Institute. It was a small mail delivery van. After testing in April 1949, the production of the model started.
To facilitate the construction, the body of the LAZ-750 was made of wood. The carrying capacity of the van was 500 kg. Electric motor with a capacity of 4 liters. With. allowed to reach speeds of up to 30 km/h, and lead batteries provided a cruising range of 50-60 km.
In total, until 1951, about 20 LAZ-750s were produced and they were used to deliver mail in Leningrad. Later, an improved version of the LAZ-751 appeared with an 8 hp engine. With. Its carrying capacity has increased to 1.5 tons, the maximum speed has reached 35 km/h, and the cruising range has increased to 60-70 km. Also, a number of buses were later equipped with iron-nickel batteries – they could travel 140-160 km without recharging.
However, Ukrainian electric vehicles turned out to be too expensive to manufacture. The cost of a compact van was higher than that of a GAZ-51 truck with a payload of 2.5 tons.
Since the LAZ electric cars were made of wood, the design turned out to be short-lived. All vans were decommissioned and disposed of, and not a single copy of the first Ukrainian electric car has survived to this day.
