Former type Sociedad Anónima Fate Bankrupted Parent MAFSA | Industry Automotive Defunct 2006 Website www.ipvsa.biz Founded 2 May 1963 Ceased operations 2006 | |
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Investigación y Proyectos de Vehículos Especiales, S.A. (IPV) was a Spanish heavy vehicle manufacturer based in A Pontenova, Galicia.
IPV's parent company, Mafsa, started in 1965 as a joint-venture of three local automotive workshops which had been during years re-conditioning ex-Spanish Civil War light 4x4 trucks, mostly of Italian OM manufacture, and fitting them with diesel engines.
The first Mafsa product was a narrow-width truck, with a very elementary cab and a choice of Barreiros or Perkins engines, specifically designed for North-western Spain logging industry, and nicknamed carroceta.
As Mafsa had no sales network, the carrocetas were only sold from the plant. Nevertheless they were quite successful, and allowed Mafsa to expand into more general purpose 4x4 trucks, which were specially in demand for fire-fighting and construction off-road applications; to appoint a few dealers around Spain and therefore eventually to become a truck maker worthy of the name.
By then the trade mark was Mafsa itself, but in 1972 it was switched to IPV.
IPV model range grew gradually up to 270-hp and 24-ton GW, while OEM engines switched to MAN and a new more modern-looking and comfortable cab was used. Specially interesting were a bi-modal (road/railway) model and a dockside tractor to pull semi-trailers along short distances.
IPV went into receivership in October 2006, and it seems that vehicle production will be stopped in short term.