The Ministry of the Automotive Industry (Minavtoprom; Russian: Министерство автомобильной промышленности СССР) was a government ministry in the Soviet Union.
The Ministry of the Automotive industry operated about 300 plants and numerous research and development organizations. Most key facilities belonged to a production association, and most associations consisted of a lead final assembly plant and numerous satellite plants. Eight production associations produced nearly all trucks and about one-half of all buses; four produced almost all Soviet passenger cars. In the mid-1980s the ministry produced about 250 truck, 60 automobile, and 35 bus models and modifications and 50 types of trailers and attachments. The ministry also maintained its own internal R&D base for vehicle design and production technology development.[1]
Before 1965 the automotive industry was subordinate to several different administrative organizations including: the Central Administration of State Automotive Plants (1922-1941); the People's Commissariat for Medium Machine Building (1941-1945); the Ministry of the Automobile industry (1945-1947); the Ministry of the Automobile and Tractor Industry (1947-1953); the Ministry of Machine Building (1953-1954); and the Ministry of the Automobile Industry (1955-1957). In 1957 most industrial ministries were abolished and replaced with regional economic councils. In 1965 the present ministerial structure was introduced.[1]
Production associations were introduced in the mid-1960s to increase manufacturing efficiency through a unified administrative structure that usually brings together in a single enterprise a major manufacturer and its principal suppliers. This structure is supposed to provide coordinated production programs among cooperating plants, more efficient use of resources, and more rapid assimilation of technological advances.[1]
In November 1991 the Ministry became the Open Joint-Stock Company Avtoselkhozmash Holding.[2]