55 years the signing of the agreement between FIAT and the USSR for the car factory in Togliattigrad

2021-05-07T22:31:26.655Z

After the signing of the agreement, in May 1966, by Aleksandr Tarasov, minister of the automobile industry of the USSR and Vittorio Valletta, president of the FIAT car manufacturer, the Fiat-124, with the name "Zhiguli", became the most popular car in the Soviet Union. Construction began in January 1967 and the first model, released in 1970, was nicknamed “Kopejka” (Copeco). The need for the construction of the VAZ car factory in Togliattigrad was dictated by the fact that at the time the USSR car industry was manufacturing 150,000 cars a year, while in Togliattigrad the aim was to produce 600,000 cars a year. In 1973 the “Lada” brand was created for cars intended for export. Overall in the USSR and post-communist Russia,in the period from 1970 to 2014, 15 million cars were manufactured under the “Zhiguli” brand. In 1977, the first LADA 4 × 4 off-road vehicle was produced.