Alfa factories outside Italy

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

In AD7-658 Graham Hilder asks about Alfas assembly operations outside of 
Italy- with particular reference to the South African cars.

My understanding was that the CKD operation was unique to South Africa, and 
existed only because South Africa did not allow the importation of complete 
cars; and that the factory was not owned or operated by Alfa Romeo, but 
assembled several different makes of cars which were shipped in as parts.

A support for this South-Africa-only assumption is that all of the CKD cars 
listed in Fusi have the same type numbers as the right-hand-drive models; one 
would expect left-hand drive models also if the CKD operations were more 
general.

The only Alfa-owned and operated factory outside of Italy that I have heard 
of was the Fabrica Nacional de Motores in Brazil which built trucks, not 
cars. Trucks were a major part of Alfa's business in the first decade after 
the war, trucks and busses outnumbering cars more than three to one during 
the 1945-1950 period; from 1950 to 1955 the cars caught up, with 17,900 cars 
and 13,500 trucks, of which 4,700 were built in Brasil. Around 1970 Alfa 
started assembling Fiat trucks in the FNM plant, which at the time was said 
to be building 3,000 heavy trucks a year. 

There is also an odd machine which may/may not have had some relevance to 
Alfa's extrateritorial car manufacture. An Alfa 1900 Berlina powered by a 
non-Alfa engine (Willys? Kaiser-Frazer?) with a non-Alfa name and a non-Alfa 
grill superimposed on the intact front sheet metal was assembled in 
Argentina. This may have involved some sort of partnership with Alfa (or with 
FNM) or it may have just been reuse of Alfa tooling which had been sold, but 
I have no details.

Fiat is another question entirely; it has plants in Argentina, Brazil, 
Turkey, Poland, South Africa, Russia, India  and China, and can put Alfa 
badges on cars from any of them.  

John H. 
Raleigh, N.C.

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