Namco (automobiles)
NAMCO logo
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| Anonymi Etaireia | |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 1972 |
| Founder | Gerasimos-Petros-Kostas-Victor Kontogouris Andreas-Elena-Danis-Nikos-Rudolf-Petros Kontogouris |
| Headquarters | Thessaloniki, Greece |
| Products | Automobiles |
| Website | NAMCO |
NAMCO (National Motor Company of Greece) is a Greek vehicle manufacturer. It was founded in 1972 by brothers Petros Tzannetos Kontogouris and Rodolfos Kontogouris.
The first efforts of the Kontogouris brothers involved attempts to build a light truck called Hellas in Germany. In 1957, they acquired rights to a production technology of a multi-purpose vehicle developed by Swiss engineer Dr. Wilfried Fahr. In 1961, Kontogouris created their first company (FARCO) in Thessaloniki, Greece, to produce the vehicle, called FARMOBIL, with BMW 700 flat-2 engine. Ironically, this smart vehicle was not certified for the Greek market and all production was exported to several countries around the world. In 1963, the company was acquired by Chrysler and renamed it Chrysler Hellas S.A. In 1967, production in Greece was stopped by the American company, and was transferred to other countries. Meanwhile, in 1961 ambitious plans were made by the Kontogouris Brothers for a new company (to be called NAMCO) with a new factory in Patras, Greece to produce under licence a German-designed (Neckar) three-wheeler truck and other vehicles, but were not materialized.
NAMCO would resurface in 1972, when a light passenger-utility vehicle called the Pony was introduced in the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair, after an agreement was signed with Citroën. The car, whose original design (Baby-Brousse) was created by a team of French engineers in Côte d'Ivoire on a 2CV platform, had been adopted by Citroën itself as part of "basic world car" project that eventually led to the Citroën FAF (the Pony and other similar cars preceded the FAF and were not derived from it, as is often erroneously reported). Indeed, cars on the same basis were produced around the world from Vietnam to Portugal, but the Pony became by far the most successful. In 1974, NAMCO started business officially and production started in a new plant in Thessaloniki. The Pony (also called Pony-Citroën), helped by a law giving tax breaks for light utility-passenger vehicles, became an instant success, being the cheapest car in the market and, at the same time, an incredibly robust and practical automobile; about half a dozen Greek companies would follow NAMCO's example, with similar contraptions, none of which, though, came close to Pony's success. The car was greatly modernized (including Dyane 6 components) and a large number of versions and facelifts followed, keeping it up to standards. A production number of 30,000 Pony's has often been cited, but it most probably included similar vehicles produced in other countries; a more accurate number of cars produced in Greece should be close to 17,000 units. Following its success in the Greek market, the company made significant exports to many countries around the world (a few were even exported to the U.S.), undoubtedly "helped" by the Citroën logo on the vehicle.
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Wikipedia