The Krasnodar mechanical plant of non-standard equipment, commonly known as AvtoKuban , was a Soviet/Russian company that manufactured buses based on truck chassis.
History
The Krasnodar mechanical plant was the first Soviet company that specialised in the production of special vehicles for cultural institutions. For almost thirty years it remained the main manufacturer of theatre buses, mobile clubhouses and libraries in the Soviet Union. In addition to the buses, the plant also built various Kubanets vehicles based on the UAZ-452D between 1966 and 1998.
In 1962, the Soviet government reorganised one of the departments of the Krasnodar industrial enterprise "Rempromkombinat" into the "Krasnodar mechanical plant of non-standard equipment" that would produce medium-sized buses for cultural institutions and citywide agitation. All of its buses were to be built on truck chassis provided by large automobile manufacturers such as GAZ. As the first model had been expected to be built by the end of summer, engineers of the newly created factory built a bus named Kuban-62, which had a wooden frame instead of a metal one and was based on the chassis of the GAZ-51A. This model was used in the city of Krasnodar as mobile clubhouses and bookstores. A year later, it was modernised, demonstrated at an exhibition under the name Kuban-63 and went into mass production. Since there was a need for various special vehicles for the Ministry of Culture, the Krasnodar plant increased the number and variety of automobiles it produced. The overall number of its buses rose from 293 in 1963 to 955 in 1966. New models came off the assembly line, including the mobile clubhouse Kuban-64, the mobile library Kuban-65A, and a four-wheel-drive bus built on the chassis of the