Moscow Automobile and Tractor Electrical Equipment Plant

(ATE-1), a large enterprise of the Soviet automotive industry. It manufactures generators, starters, generator regulators, and other electrical equipment for passenger cars, trucks, and special vehicles (the Moskvich 412, ZIL-130, GAZ-41, GAZ-46, GAZ-66, and so on), and also for some types of tractors and combines.

The ATE-1 plant was founded in 1929 as one of the first plants producing automobile and tractor electrical equipment. In 1934 it produced 200, 000 magnetos, which had formerly been imported. By 1940 the plant’s production was increased by a factor of 11 as compared with 1932. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), the basic production equipment was evacuated to the East; the remaining facilities were used for production of supplies for the front lines. Simultaneous production of automobile and tractor electrical equipment was resumed in 1942. In 1945 the plant began manufacturing generators and starters. Products manufactured by the plant are used by more than 120 industrial enterprises, bureaus of Sel’khoztekhnika (the Republic Association for the Sale of Agricultural Equipment), and other commercial organizations. Part of the production is exported. Mass-production methods are prevalent. Between 1940 and 1973, production was increased by a factor of 5. The plant staff has introduced a number of innovations, such as reduction of manual operations, saving of materials at each work place, and production of the daily quota an hour earlier than scheduled.