S. K. Ordzhonikidze Kutaisi Automobile Plant

The Kutaisi Automobile Plant was founded in 1945 near the Georgian city of the same name; the first ZiS-150 trucks were completed in 1951.

In the 1950s the plant used units of the ZiS-150 and ZiL-164 trucks to build KAZ-120 tractor units, KAZ-600 three-way tippers and KAZ-601 cement trucks, as well as trailers. The USSR Council of Ministers' seven-year plan (1959–65) called for the plant to specialise in flatbeds and tractor units.

In 1958 a prototype of the KAZ-605 flatbed was completed; it was the first truck designed in the USSR with a tilting cab. It used the main units of the ZiL-164, and the cab design was inspired by Austrian Austro-Fiat trucks. The design of the later KAZ-605 version, however, was inspired by the US Ford C-series trucks. Versions of the KAZ-605 were shown at various exhibitions, but the model never reached series production.

The KAZ-606 tractor unit, based on ZiL-164 units and the cab of the later KAZ-605, did reach series production. The first KAZ-606 prototypes were completed in 1959, and somewhat later it went into series production. As the six-cylinder inline engine was too weak for a tractor unit, it was replaced from 1967 with the ZiL-130 V8 petrol engine. With the new engine the designation of the main KAZ model also changed: 606 became 608.

In 1976 the cabs of the Kutaisi trucks were changed, the Ford-inspired shape giving way to square lines. The model designation became KAZ-608V. This is probably the best-known KAZ; it was built for 14 years, later also as the -V1 (ZiL-375 engine) and -V2 (reinforced frame, modernised axles and brakes). KAZ tractor units were also common in Estonia, but they did not have a very good reputation, mainly because of their rather poor build quality and the problematic handling caused by their short wheelbase.

The Kutaisi plant built the KAZ-608 series only as tractor units; tippers and four-wheel-drive vehicles on the same base remained prototypes. On farms it was fairly common to mount fertiliser spreaders on the KAZ-608 and -608V.

By the end of the 1970s the KAZ-608V was outdated; as the Kutaisi plant's design staff was rather small, the Moscow institute NAMI was asked to help renew the range. The result was the KAZ-4540, a four-wheel-drive tipper for farm haulage. It had a 5.5-tonne payload and a JaMZ-642 V6 diesel based on the KamAZ diesel engine, with entirely original running gear. The first KAZ-4540s left the Kutaisi plant in 1984, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s some also reached Estonia (a few have survived). A whole model generation was planned on the KAZ-4540 (flatbed 4360, four-wheel-drive tractor unit 4440, three-axle version and so on), but the collapse of the USSR and the difficult economic situation of newly independent Georgia cut these plans short.

Production of the KAZ-608V ended in 1990, and production of the 4540 also stopped a little later with the collapse of the USSR. A few years ago the Indian carmaker Mahindra planned to assemble its off-roaders in Kutaisi, but there is no reliable information on whether these plans materialised.