Automeccanica
Encyclopedia
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
automobile producing company. Founded in 1979, it was one of the companies that produced the "passenger-utility" type of vehicle popular in Greece at the time for tax categorization reasons. Its creators were former executives of Autokinitoviomihania Ellados
Autokinitoviomihania Ellados
Autokinitoviomihania Ellados was founded in Athens in 1975 by a group of Greek businessmen, including the owners of the company importing Fiat in Greece.- History :...
(meaning 'Greek Car Industry') a company founded in 1975 to also produce vehicles of this type – it assembled Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Fissore models based on Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
products, as well as other Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
models and variants. Automeccanica followed a different path, building the Zebra model, a passenger-utility car based on the Daihatsu Charade
Daihatsu Charade
The Daihatsu Charade is a supermini which was first introduced in 1977. Daihatsu considers the Charade a "large compact" car to differentiate it from smaller compacts in its lineup, such as the Daihatsu Mira/Cuore...
, as well as assembling the Charade itself. In 1985, when the law favoring the Zebra-type vehicles changed, Automeccanica stopped its production (after about 2,000 units had been built) and started licence production of the Soviet Lada Niva
Lada Niva
The Lada Niva or VAZ-2121 is the Russian word for "crop field") is an off-road vehicle built by Soviet/Russian automaker AvtoVAZ. The car is very popular in its home country. It is also popular in Canada , South America, Europe, and other regions where the terrain requires a robust and tough car...
model, while it developed its own cabrio-version of the car. In 1988 it acquired its former "father" company, Autokinitoviomihania Ellados and the latter's factory in Thiva. Automeccanica went out of the car-construction business in 1995.