Lucas Industries

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Lucas Industries plc was a British manufacturer of automotive accessories and a major supplier to British automobile manufacturers.

history

The company was founded by Joseph Lucas and his son Harry in 1872 under the name Joseph Lucas & Son . In the beginning, metal goods and lamps for ships and buses were traded. In 1902 the company was changed to Joseph Lucas Ltd and the company specialized in magnetos, distributors, headlights, windshield wiper motors, starter motors and similar supplier parts.

The manufacturer of switches and accumulators CAV and Rotax, a manufacturer of motorcycle accessories were taken over in 1926, the brake manufacturer Girling in 1929. Lucas took over the direct competitor Simms (with the production of starter motors, spark plugs, ignition coils, etc.) in 1968. As he grew, Lucas reached for the British Market significance analogous to Bosch for the German market.

In 1996 Lucas Industries merged with the American manufacturer Varity to form LucasVarity , the brand name Lucas is continued. In 1999, LucasVarity was taken over by TRW Automotive .

Vehicle production

Between 1974 and 1980 Lucas converted some delivery vans like the Ford Transit into electric cars . In addition, a number of taxis were created whose five-seat body was designed by Ogle Design . An electric motor with 60 HP power drove the front wheels.

Trivia

In the early years headlights were marketed under the trademark King of the Road . After the Second World War, Lucas was sometimes disparagingly referred to as the Prince of Darkness or the Inventor of the electrical Darkness , based on supposedly frequent failures of the electrical components. It is unclear whether this criticism was justified or whether the faults were due to poor manufacturing quality from the main customer British Leyland .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lucas Simms Motor
  2. ↑ Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 , chapter Lucas.