Ungarische Waggon- und Maschinenfabrik AG 1926

The RÁBA Automotive Group (), commonly known as Rába, is a Hungarian public limited company, listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange. Rába engineers, manufactures and customizes automotive components, specialty vehicles and axles for commercial vehicles, agri-machinery and earth-movers. The Rába has been building axles as well as complete vehicles since 1902. The company has three strategic business units. The company is headquartered in

Győr Győr ( , ; ; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia region, and – halfwa ...

, employing more than 2000 people.

History

The company was founded by local investor groups in

in 1896. In 1899, the Rába had started to export to foreign countries: it supplied railway passenger carriages to Egypt, the East Indies, Southern Africa, city tramcars to Amsterdam and Antwerp. The carriages of the London underground railway were constructed and manufactured in the Rába company. The London Underground Railway ordered 30 multiple-unit trains, 66 passenger cars for multiple-unit trains and bogies. In 1904, the production of the first petrol engine powered trucks started. In 1914, the company started to produce its first passenger automobiles: The RÁBA Alpha. The steward's office ordered a special RÁBA Grand for the personal use of Emperor Charles I of Austria. Rába's trucks originally used cabins supplied by West German

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

, but from 1980 on DAF's F241 cabin was used. A few

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

cabs (of MAN origins) were also supplied from Romania in return for engines. Bennett (''Eastern Block''), p. 58 Rába's engine mainstay was itself of MAN origins, with the old D21 inline-six diesel massaged up to with the help of turbocharging and intercooling. In the 1980s, Rába built no more than about 2,000 trucks per year, although it was Hungary's third biggest employer. Being an important provider to Hungarocamion, a publicly operated international trucking firm, helped raise their international profile. In 1985, Rába's business mostly consisted of engine and axle manufacturing, with only 15% of turnover being represented by trucks. Of these trucks, however, nearly 90 per cent were exported, with most going to

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. In 1986, Rába introduced a more powerful, diesel engine (D11TLL) in order to help their trucks compete internationally and to meet Hungarocamion's needs. The new engine range was loosely based on the earlier MAN units, but were now of 11.05 litres, and were developed together with the Linz Institute of

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

, Austria.

References

External links

Official page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raba (automobile) Motor vehicle manufacturers of Austria-Hungary Automotive companies of Hungary Truck manufacturers of Hungary Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1896 1896 establishments in Hungary 1896 establishments in Austria-Hungary Hungarian brands Győr