Csepel (vehicle manufacturer)

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Csepel logo
Csepel iron foundry by Manfred Weiss, 1885
Motorcycles and bicycles in the 1960s

Csepel Motorkerékpárgyár was a Hungarian motorcycle manufacturer from 1937 to 1975 on the island of Csepel . In addition, from 1949 to 1993 (from 1975 Csepel Autogyár ) Csepel was a manufacturer of commercial vehicles and produced trucks and components such as engines, transmissions, clutches, steering systems, etc. for other commercial vehicle manufacturers such as Ikarus .

Parts for car and truck construction are currently being manufactured as a supplier .

Company history

The iron foundry in Csepel was founded in 1880 by the brothers Berthold and Manfréd Weiss .
From 1911 the company name was "Manfréd Weiss Stahl- und Metallwerke AG Csepel". Over the years the product range has been constantly expanded and during the First World War the company rose to become the leading arms supplier to the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary. In the interwar period , in addition to small trucks and four-wheel drive vehicles, aircraft were also developed and built for the military. The so-called Hungarian Volkswagen “ Pente ” was built in the 1920s , but was not a success because of the outbreak of war.

In 1944 the Manfréd-Weiss group was the largest arms company in Hungary. The SS acquired the majority through an extorted trust agreement from the Jewish owner families Weiss and Chorin against the promise of free emigration for 48 family members from Hungary and thus the escape from the Holocaust and the payment of 3 million RM in foreign currency.

From 1947 the plant was converted into a state enterprise. The state-owned company "Mogürt" took over the international sales . The "Csepel-Automobilwerke" originated in 1949 in the former aircraft factory. From 1950 commercial vehicles, engines and other parts were built there. A license from Steyr was used for this. Truck production was discontinued in 1993, and components have been manufactured for other car and truck manufacturers ever since.

Tank production

Jagdpanzer 43M Zrinyi in Kubinka Tank Museum

Aircraft production

The company mainly manufactured licensed products and developed some of them further. The following types were produced:

Motorcycle production

Danuvia-Csepel from 1956 in the Neckarsulm Two-Wheeler Museum

In 1939 the manufacture of motorcycles began in large numbers, initially a 100 cm³, then a 125 cm³ and a 250 cm³ model with the brand name "Csepel". From 1954, the 250 cc motorcycles manufactured in "Csepel Motorkerékpárgyár" were sold under the name Pannonia . At the same time as the production of the Csepel 125 motorcycle, the name of the plant was changed to “Danuvia Szerszámgépgyár” ( Danuvia Machine Tool Factory). The Pannonia motorcycles shipped to the United States were called White . The name was derived from the company founder Mánfred Weiss. In 1975 the company in Csepel stopped manufacturing motorcycles.

Csepel commercial vehicles

In 1949, the production of commercial vehicles began in the old factory on the island of Csepel near Budapest . Under license from the Austrian company Steyr , based on the Steyr type 380/480, a hood truck was built as type D-350 with a payload of 4 t. In contrast to the Steyr, the hood of the Csepel was a bit more angular. After 1950, the payload as well as the technology and optics of the type Csepel D-420 could be improved so that the truck looked very similar to the Steyr type 380.

The export began in 1958 and was boosted by the new Csepel D-450 , also available as a tractor unit . The trucks were mainly sold to the Comecon countries. In the USSR , Poland, the GDR , Egypt, China, Nigeria and Syria , the trucks were sold by the "Mogürt". All important types of semi-trailers were manufactured in-house for the D-450 N (SZM) . During this time, development and testing were intensified in order to test the 4 × 4 and 8 × 8 all-wheel drive vehicles, special vehicles, concrete mixers , fire engines , silo trucks, loading crane superstructures and the dump trucks . In the beginning, our own diesel engines were installed, later engines from Rába from Győr in Hungary were used. Installation components from various manufacturers such as transmissions, cabs, engines and spare parts were exchanged within the Eastern European countries.

The following Csepel commercial vehicles were used in the GDR:

  • Csepel D-352, engine D-413, 85 HP, 3.8 t payload, 7.5 t total weight, 6700 mm length, flatbed truck
  • Csepel D-352B, engine D-413, 85 HP, 3.5 t payload, 7.55 t total weight, 6353 mm length, tipper
  • Csepel D-420I, engine D-413, 85 HP, 4.5 t payload, 8.3 t total weight, 6716 mm length, flatbed truck
  • Csepel D-420B, engine D-413, 85 HP, 4.2 t payload, 8.6 t total weight, 6310 mm length, tipper
  • Csepel D-450, engine D-414, 95 HP, 5.0 t payload, 9.3 t total weight, 6733 mm length, flatbed truck
  • Csepel D-450N, engine D-414, 95 HP, 8.0 t payload, 12.1 t total weight, articulated truck with trailer
  • Csepel D-510, milk tanker for the transport of 6500 liters of milk
  • Csepel D-705, engine D-614, 145 HP, 14.0 t payload, 12,100 mm length, articulated truck with trailer
  • Csepel D-710, engine D-614, 145 HP, 7.0 t payload, 14.3 t total weight, 8500 mm length, flatbed truck, box truck for furniture transport, tank truck, sprinkler truck, milk tanker (with two tanks for 2000 and 2500 liters) , Rescue vehicle (with two arms for a lifting load of 4000 kg each and a capstan with a tensile load of 8000 kg up to a distance of 100 m)

Since the performance of the Csepel Lkw 450 with its 100 hp drive was no longer sufficient for larger loads, an in-house development of a forward control truck as the D-705 with an engine output of 145 hp was produced from 1960 . This truck was successfully sold on the socialist market. In the meantime, the truck has been equipped with a 170 hp engine. 700 of the model were sold in the GDR. This type was built until 1971, with almost all components being manufactured by Csepel itself.

In 1968 a new vehicle was developed in cooperation with Steyr, for which the driver's cab was taken over from the Steyr 880 . The Council for Mutual Economic Aid of the Socialist States (Comecon) decided at this time to end commercial vehicle construction at Csepel, now the focus should be on the cooperation with the bus manufacturer Ikarus . 85 percent of the floor assemblies produced have now been delivered to the bus manufacturer Ikarus. Csepel chassis were also supplied to the Polish truck manufacturer Star , while the front control cab came from the French manufacturer Chausson . At that time, production comprised around 1000 units, with buses and military vehicles making up a large part. The Polish commercial vehicle manufacturer Jelcz purchased cabs from Csepel Autogyár.

In 1972, the company's own development of an all-wheel-drive truck for the military was successfully completed as the D-566 . However, this type of truck was never to come into its own, although it represented a real alternative to the Ural-375 , the Tatra 148 or the trucks from ZIL .

From 1990 onwards, a number of truck bodies were also purchased from the Finnish truck manufacturer Sisu and the Slovenian commercial vehicle brand TAM . The diesel engines with outputs between 180 and 340 hp were supplied by Cummins . Because of the conflict in Yugoslavia , the truck factory MAN and LIAZ helped out as suppliers and manufactured complete series of trucks and buses until 1993. Subsequently, steering systems, clutches and other components were and are still being manufactured for other car and truck manufacturers.

  • Csepel logo

  • Csepel D 352

  • Csepel D 450

  • Csepel D 705

literature

  • From the international automotive industry: Hungary. In: Motor Vehicle Technology 4/1959, pp. 152–154 and 8/1959, pp. 329–330. (Csepel D 450)
  • Special vehicles from Hungary . In: Motor vehicle technology 03/1961, pp. 118/119. (Special versions of the Csepel trucks)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Iván T. Berend : An Economic History of Nineteenth-Century Europe: Diversity and Industrialization , Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 1-107-03070-6 , p. 328.
  2. ^ Raul Hilberg : The Destruction of European Jews , Fischer Taschenbuch 1982, Volume 2, ISBN 3-596-24417-X , p. 892 ff.
  3. ↑ Brief description of the Csepel D 450 N tractor-trailer . In: Motor Vehicle Technology 6/1963, pp. 217-219, 222.
  4. ↑ Csepel D 705 N semi-trailer . In: Motor vehicle technology 1/1964, pp. 16-19, 22.
  5. ↑ Der Verkehrspraktiker - magazine for theory and practice of motor traffic and urban local traffic. Verlag Die Wirtschaft Berlin, issue 6/1959, p. 36 ff.

Web links

Commons : Vehicles by Csepel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Sources and references