"Латвия" маркалы микроавтобустар және фургондар өндірісі

Manufacturer of vans and minibuses under the brand name Latvija

The Riga Autobus Factory (RAF; ) was a factory in Jelgava, Latvia, making vans and minibuses under the brand name Latvija.

During the Soviet period, RAF and UAZ were the only producers of vans and minibuses in Soviet Union. RAF vans and minibuses were used only by state enterprises, most often as ambulances and for public transit. Private persons were not allowed to own them, the only exception being for families with at least five children. In 1949, the factory began producing van bodies on the site of the Riga auto repair factory No.2 (commonly known as RARZ). In 1955, it was renamed the Riga Experimental Bus Factory (, Рижский Опытный Автобусный Завод), and the products started to be abbreviated to RAF. It would become the main Soviet producer of minibuses. RAF's first product was the RAF 251, a 22 seat local bus, based on the GAZ 51 chassis (which RAF also built), with a wood and metal body. rather like the Dodge A100; the engine was accessible through an inside hatch It debuted in 1957, and ten were built for display at that year's Moscow Youth Festival, leading to a proposed name Festival. RAF management, in a rare move for a Soviet company, created two competing teams to individually design a new van. So RAF tried to persuade the selection committee to adopt the more radical 962 II, and did. A one tonne variant was based on a modernized 977D chassis. However, the factory size was not large enough to put this model into mass production, and therefore it was moved to ErAZ (Yerevan, Armenia).

Construction of a new factory in Jelgava (to build the new 962 II, now known as the RAF 2203 Latvia) was begun on 25 July 1969, and finished in February 1976. The massive factory created profound challenges for Soviet occupied Latvia. During its planning, local economists warned that the project was unfeasible in the long term, but were ignored by the Soviet government. Due to a lack of local manpower, workers from all around the Soviet Union were brought to Jelgava, increasing the already high levels of immigration and putting strain on local infrastructure and the ethnic relations between Latvians and the mostly Russian speaking newcomers. The proportion of Latvians living in Jelgava shrank from 80% to less than 50% during the Soviet times. An entirely new neighbourhood of Jelgava, bearing the RAF name, was built. In addition, even with the imported workforce, the factory suffered from a lack of qualified manpower: engineers (later on, also conscript soldiers of the Soviet Army) were made to work on the production line. Quality issues were rampant and well known; on some days, all of the manufactured vehicles turned out to be defective. Even the large factory, in the end, turned out to be too small (with a planned yearly output of just 12,000 cars per year) to install important machinery, slowing down production. After the bankruptcy of RAF, factory's buildings and land were purchased by SIA Baltiva for 150 thousand lats (later known as SIA NP Jelgava Business Park). Shortly after, company's shares were transferred to the Nordic Partners group, which was originally financed by the Icelandic businessman Gisli Reyninsson (Icelandic: Reynisson Gisli). On the estates purchased, SIA NP Jelgava Business Park developed an industrial park with a total area of 23 ha.

Rumors came out in 2018 of RAF being revived as "Rīgas Autobusu Fabrika, RAF" was registered in a Latvian company database. It is believed they will show off their first new model in 2019 and start production in 2020. It was also believed that RAF will now focus on electric powered vehicles like vans and trolleybuses. Surviving prototypes of the plant are on display at the Riga Motor Museum, as well as production models in other institutions.