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The Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant was founded in 1941 as a direct result of the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

The rapidly advancing Germans threatened to capture the bulk of Soviet industry, concentrated in the Western parts of the country, and thereby undercut the ability of the USSR to supply its troops.

In response to this threat the government of Joseph Stalin ordered the evacuation of strategically crucial industrial centers to the East.

By the October 1941, the rapid German drive to Moscow, triggered the decision to relocate the Moscow automotive manufacturer ZIS to the Volga town of Ulyanovsk.

The town, already a nascent industrial center with a sufficiently developed infrastructure and a good supply of skilled workers, would be an ideal location for the reconstituted factory.

It was also safely out of reach of the German army.

At that time of its founding, the plant was considered a subsidiary of ZIS.

By 1942, the plant began production of artillery shells and automobiles.

The first automobile produced at the plant was the ZIS-5 three-ton truck.