MEBEA


MEBEA was an important 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 two companies assembling motorbikes since 1954, and its initials stand for Μεσογειακαί Επιχειρήσεις Βιομηχανίας, Εμπορίου και Αντιπροσωπειών. It grew to be a significant Greek company with two factories in the north of Athens.
Its most successful products were light three-wheeler trucks with 50 cc Zündapp engines, that became a common sight all over the country for almost three decades and were exported to African and Asian markets. Its mopeds and motorcycles mostly used Zündapp engines as well as MEBEA's own, and some were used, among others, by the Greek Postal Service and the Telecommunications Organization.
Apart from the previously mentioned vehicles that were of its own development, the company cooperated with Reliant of Britain, starting licence production of the latter's TW9 heavier three-wheeler truck in 1970 and Robin three-wheel passenger car in 1974, while the MEBEA Fox automobile was presented as a joint development.
In addition to the motorized vehicle construction mentioned above, other activities during MEBEA history included motorbike engine production for use in its lighter models as well as for export, and the operation of the bicycle division producing a range of bicycle models.

Development and fate of the ''Fox'' model

In 1979 MEBEA introduced the Fox light utility vehicle, in line with contemporary Greek 'fashion' for such vehicles like the Pony by Namco, the Farma by MAVA-Renault, and others that appeared later. The Fox was originally designed and built in prototype form by MEBEA itself on modified Reliant Kitten basis, but the final development for type certification was done in collaboration with Reliant in order to bypass the difficulties imposed by Greek law for a "passenger car" production permit.
The company faced problems in the early 1980s when certain Asian markets were lost, but the final blow came when Greek law stopped 'favouring' light passenger-utility vehicles, essentially killing the Fox which until then had accomplished modest sales, reaching about 3000 units. In 1983 production of the Fox was terminated, and soon MEBEA, a company associated with a wide variety of light vehicles that had almost become a part of Greek culture, ceased to exist.

Models

This is a list of the main motorized models produced by MEBEA.

Agricultural machinery

Several models were produced, including: