AK Hellas (the initials standing for the full name of the company, 'Aggelopoulos-Karkanis O.E.') was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

manufacturer of light trucks and other metal products. It designed and produced two basic types of vehicles - all three-wheelers with 50cc engines, taking advantage of a favorable classification as "motorbikes" according to Greek law. One group of models it produced since 1965 were light trucks with "motorcycle" structure (steering and controls), a type of vehicle also produced in Greece by ''

MEBEA MEBEA was an important Greece, Greek vehicle manufacturer, producer of light trucks, passenger automobiles, motorcycles, motorbike engines, agricultural machinery and bicycles. Activities MEBEA was founded in Athens in 1960 by the merger of tw ...

'' (by far the most successful), '' Mego'', '' Alta'', '' Saracakis'', ''

Pitsos Pitsos A.E. (Πίτσος) was founded in Athens in 1865 and began as a company manufacturing small household appliances and oil heaters. In 1959 it began production of fridges in a new factory; it soon invested heavily on the development and p ...

'' (a big home appliances manufacturer), ''Markal'', ''Naxos'' and others. The other group of models were "proper" micro-trucks, with "automobile" structure of steering, controls etc. It was in this category that ''AK Hellas'' became the biggest truck manufacturer in Greece, leaving behind ''

'', ''Delta'' (a product of ''

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...

''), ''Minicar'', ''Zamba'' and other smaller Greek manufacturers. The company's ''T200'' model, using a ''Sachs'' 50cc 4.8 hp engine and with a payload of 150 kg was produced between 1968 and 1975 with three different cab designs and in several versions (including van models). According to Dimitrios N. Aggelopoulos, several thousand units were produced, while other branches created by the same entrepreneur, were involved in production of pleasure boats, biological cleaning units, telephone booths, phone switchboards, generating sets, helmets, storage tanks, prefab container houses, wind turbine blades, irrigation systems, etc.

References

*L.S. Skartsis and G.A. Avramidis, 'Made in Greece', Typorama, Patras, Greece (2003)
L.S. Skartsis, "Greek Vehicle & Machine Manufacturers 1800 to present: A Pictorial History", Marathon (2012)
(eBook) *

G.N. Georgano George Nicolas "Nick" Georgano (29 February 1932 – 22 October 2017Nick Georgano
Alvis Archive Bl ...

(Ed.), "The Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles", Krause Publication, Iola, Wisconsin (1979) *H. Linz and H. Schrader, "Die grosse Automobil Enzyklopaedie - 100 Jahre Geschichte",

BLV Verlag The BLV Verlag is a howto book publisher in Germany. The program includes over 600 titles, to which about 120 new books published annually. Main topic areas are the garden and nature, sports, fitness, cooking and DIY. BLV-books are almost exclu ...

Munich (1985)
Interview of Dimitrios N. Aggelopoulos in DNAsmart.gr (in Greek)

External links

Dutch Auto Catalog
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Greece {{Greece-company-stub