Pegaso
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| Industry | Automobile, defense, equipment |
|---|---|
| Fate | Discontinued |
| Successor | Iveco |
| Founded | 1946 |
| Defunct | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Barcelona, Spain |
| Products | Vehicles, tractors, armored cars |
Pegaso (Spanish pronunciation: [peˈɣaso], "Pegasus") was a Spanish manufacturer of trucks, omnibuses, tractors, armored vehicles, and, for a while, sports cars. The parent company, Enasa, was created in 1946 and based in the old Hispano-Suiza factory, under the direction of the renowned automotive engineer Wifredo Ricart. In 1990, Iveco took over Enasa, and the Pegaso name disappeared in 1994.
Enasa, a state-owned company, had its main business interest in the truck and bus market. Pegaso became one of the leading European industrial vehicle makers, with significant exports to both Europe and Latin America; the Benelux, Venezuela, and Cuba were its major foreign markets, and a substantial contract to supply tactical trucks to the Egyptian Army was signed in the late 1970s.
The main Enasa factories were located in Barcelona, Madrid, and Valladolid. Between 1946 and 1990, Pegaso built more than 350,000 vehicles; the highest production in a single year, over 26,000, was achieved in 1974.
The first Enasa produced truck, a slightly modified Hispano-Suiza 66G, was the Pegaso I, of which only a few units were made (due mostly to the severe shortages of the post-war era) in 1946 and 1947. An enhanced but still petrol-engined version, the Pegaso II (model code Z-203), was launched late in 1947 and reached some hundreds of units while awaiting a much-needed diesel model. This was the 125 hp (93 kW) Pegaso Diesel (Z-202), nicknamed Mofletes ("Chubby cheeks") for its bulbous front end, which made its debut in 1949 and quickly established itself as the leader in the still weak Spanish truck market. Artic tractor (Z-701), road train, and coach or 'bus (Z-401) versions soon were also available, and all together they became El camión español ("The Spanish truck"), as Enasa badges and advertisements proudly stated.
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