AvtoVAZ (Russian: АвтоВАЗ) is a Russian automobile manufacturing company owned by the state. It was formerly named as VAZ (Russian: ВАЗ), an acronym for Volga Automotive Plant in Russian (Russian: Во́лжский автомоби́льный заво́д, Vólzhskiy avtomobíl'nyy zavód). AvtoVAZ is best known for its flagship series of Lada vehicles. In the Soviet Union, its products used various names, including Zhiguli, Oka, and Sputnik, which were phased out in the 1990s and replaced by Lada for the Russian market. From December 2019 to August 2020, AvtoVAZ sold Niva cars with Chevrolet branding.
