In this Chapter the history of the Romanian automobile industry is presented from its beginnings till today. The first Romanian motor car was the steam car built in 1880 by Dumitru Văsescu during his studies at École Centrale in Paris. On the Romanian territory, the production of automobiles powered by internal combustion engine started in 1909 in Arad, at the Marta factory, branch of the Astra Company (at that time in Austro—Hungarian Empire). A remarkable invention of the Romanian George (Gogu) Constantinescu was the first automatic transmission in the world based on his, sonic torque converter”. In 1924, the engineer Ioan A. Dimitriu patented in Paris the car with dual control, absolute priority worldwide. In 1925, the first Laboratory for the psychological testing of public transport drivers was set up in Bucharest, the 3rd in the world after those established in 1921 in France and Germany. Aurel Persu built the first aerodynamic car worldwide recognized. He presented his invention at the Romanian Academy under the title “The correct aerodynamic car”. The only car factory in Romania between the two WW was the “Ford-Romania” plant, in Bucharest. The first Ford car made here was the “1935” model, Ford V8 Sedan. After the WW II, in 1946, at the “Malaxa” factories, which later became “23 August”, a small car was designed by engineer Petre Carp. In 1947, the “Tractorul” Factory from Brașov, former IAR, starts its production, at first with a single model, IAR 22 (copy of the Hannomag model), a universal type tractor. Over the years, almost 40 models were produced at this factory from the smallest, of 26 HP, for vegetable growing and viticulture, to those of 360 HP, for land improvement works, constructions, embankments etc. In 1954, at the “Steagul Roșu—Red Flag” Plants in Brașov, later called the “Truck Factory”, began the production of the SR 101 truck, followed by SR-131 Carpați and SR-113 Bucegi. In 1971, the first heavy trucks came into production, according to Romanian projects, SR 132 for transport in heavy conditions, AB 45–116 A a dump truck with a payload of 4.5 t, 7AB-1 truck with a payload of 7 t, then (in 1978) the Diesel—electric DAC dump truck of 100 t. In 1956, in Bucharest, the production of buses and trolleybuses started under the brand “Tudor Vladimirescu—TV”, later called “Autobuzul”. There were designed and manufactured numerous types of buses (simple or articulated urban, interurban, coaches), trolleybuses (simple or articulated), minibuses and vans. In 1957, at the Mechanical Plant from Câmpulung—Muscel, in Argeș County, started the manufacturing process of IMS 57, a 100% Romanian off-road car. From 1964 it began the production of M 461 model, which, due to its performances comparable to those of the most prestigious models at that time, had a remarkable success outside Romania. ARO 240, a new off-road car model, was launched in 1966. It will generate the ARO 24 family, with 5 basic models and over 60 constructive variants. On September 6, 1966, the CEO of Régie Nationale des Usines Renault, Pierre Dreyfus, signed in Bucharest the contract granting to the Romanian party the manufacturing license of the Renault 12 model. From 1969, the Colibași plant starts the production of the Dacia 1300 car. In 1979, the Dacia 1310 model was designed starting from this first variant; it underwent numerous re-stylings and was produced until 2004. In 1976, the Romanian—French Joint Company OLTCIT S.A. was established, aiming at the manufacture and sale of small city cars. From the 29th of September 1999, Renault became the majority owner of SC AUTOMOBILE DACIA SA. On June the 2nd, 2004, Dacia Logan was the first law cost car launched in Paris at a price of only 5000 Euros. The best-selling model of the Dacia brand on the Western market was Sandero (2008). In 2010, Dacia presented the first SUV in the history of the brand—the Duster model. In 2016, the Easy-R robotic transmission was introduced on the Logan and Sandero models while in the spring of 2017, the Duster 4 × 2 model equipped with the EDC dual-clutch automatic transmission was launched. On September the 12th, 2007, Ford Motor Company acquired SC Automobile Craiova S.A. The production of Ford B-Max, the first European motor car equipped with an advanced connectivity system—SYNC, with voice commands in several languages and with an emergency assistance function, started in Craiova, in 2012. At the beginning of October 2017, began the production of the SUV model “Ford EcoSport”. The Renault Group set up Renault Technologie Roumanie which is its most important research and development center for automotive engineering outside France. Also, in Bucharest operates Renault Design Central Europe which is the first and only design center of Renault in Romania and South-Eastern Europe. Over 600 companies are active in Romania in the domain of automotive components production, most of which being subsidiaries of international holdings. At the end of this chapter, some priority trends in the development of the automotive industry are presented.


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    Title :

    History of Motor Vehicles


    Additional title:

    History Mechanism, Machine


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2023-09-22


    Size :

    17 pages





    Type of media :

    Article/Chapter (Book)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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