GAZ GAZelle History
The GAZelle van — Russia's answer to the Ford Transit, launched in 1994 and still the country's dominant light commercial vehicle.
Photo: “File:GAZ Gazelle, WAW.jpg” by Raf24~commonswiki / Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped to 16:9.
History
Serial production of the GAZelle began on 20 July 1994 at the Gorky plant in Nizhny Novgorod, filling a void left by the collapse of the Soviet Union: Russia had no modern light commercial vehicle in the Ford Transit / Volkswagen T4 class. The debut model, the GAZ-3302 pickup, carried a 1,500 kg payload and was designed for Russia's mix of paved and unpaved roads. Its affordable price and local parts supply made it immediately successful.
The GAZelle became one of GAZ's most commercially important products and the dominant LCV on the Russian market. Successive evolutions followed — the GAZelle-BUSINESS and then the GAZelle NEXT (introduced 2013), which brought a more modern cab design and improved safety — as GAZ shifted its corporate focus from passenger cars to commercial vehicles after 2003.
Generations
GAZelle (original) · GAZ-3302 series
Photo: “File:GAZ Gazelle, WAW.jpg” by Raf24~commonswiki / Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped to 16:9.
The original GAZelle range — pickup, van, and minibus variants that dominated the Russian LCV market from launch.
GAZelle NEXT
A substantially redesigned cab with improved ergonomics and safety, continuing GAZ's commercial-vehicle focus.
Body styles
- Panel van
- Minibus
- Pickup
- Flatbed
Related models
Collect the nameplate
Find a scale model of the GAZ GAZelle
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