Article ID: CBB542750309

Fiat’s small cars for Polish mass motorisation: The Small Engine Car Factory in Bielsko-Biała and Tychy, 1971–80 (June 2017)

unapi

Jastrząb, Mariusz (Author)


The Journal of Transport History
Volume: 38
Issue: 1
Pages: 37-52

ISSN: 0022-5260

Publication Date: June 2017
Edition Details: Special Issue: East-West Cooperation in the Automotive Industry: Mobility, Production and Flows
Language: English

The paper presents the 1970s licensing agreement between the communist government of Poland and the Italian company Fiat for the production of small motor vehicles, the Fiat 126 model, and the consequent building of the Small Engine Car Factory (Fabryka Samochodów Małolitrażowych) in Bielsko-Biała and Tychy. The project aimed to enhance Polish economic international competitiveness, to narrow a technological gap between the country and the West, but – most of all – to transplant to Poland an element of Western modernity: individual car ownership. In fact, with three million units produced, 126 was the car that had motorised Poland. The paper focuses on managerial problems that state bureaucracy had to tackle in the process of constructing a new car factory, showing how the political goal of mass motorisation overtook any other financial or industrial constraints, though reducing productivity and financial sustainability of the project.

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Included in

Article Valentina Fava; Luminita Gatejel (June 2017) East–West cooperation in the automotive industry: Enterprises, mobility, production. The Journal of Transport History (pp. 11-19). unapi

Article Massimo Moraglio (June 2017) Seeking a (new) ontology for transport history. The Journal of Transport History (pp. 3-10). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB542750309/

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Authors & Contributors
Urbansky, Sören
Gnoinska, Margaret K.
Astrid Mignon Kirchhof
Gatejel, Luminita
Milan J. Stankovic
Zofka, Jan
Concepts
Cold War
Automobile industry
International relations
Communism
Political science
Geopolitics
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
19th century
Places
Eastern Europe
Poland
China
Soviet Union
Yugoslavia
Hungary
Institutions
Fiat (firm)
Fiat Automobili Srbija Serbian automobile manufacturing company
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON)
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
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