Jugando a ser adivino

foreign companies, but he did

hope to ensure that this would

not be limited to merely

importing and distributing their

products in Spain. He always

tried to get his contracts to

result in an increase in Spanish

industrial output

Eduardo Barreiros was born on 24th October 1919 in Gundiás (Orense). From an early age he worked in his father’s bus company, where he was an inspector and mechanic.

After the Civil War, he started to rebuild buses and make gas generators.

At the end of the Second World War, in 1945, Barreiros embarked on various jobs working on public works con- tracts in Orense, and founding the company BECOSA. His mechanical interests led him to design and produce special machines to make the work easier. Four years later, tired of the trucks’ high fuel consumption, he transformed two petrol-driven Krupp engines into diesel engines, and then went on to transform other engines, this time working with the Russian 3HC.

However, he did not merely go on transforming engines for his industrial trucks, as there were more and more transport hauliers that were asking for these engines that could run on such a small amount of diesel fuel. Due to this growing interest, he felt encouraged in 1954 to register his new company, Barreiros Diesel, S.A., near Madrid, the place where he developed his first EB-6 en- gine, a prototype on which he concentrated all the knowledge he had acquired in his transformations and which helped him configure a Perkins engine with slight modifications.

Barreiros then started to build his industrial complex in Villaverde, on the outskirts of Madrid, commencing pro- duction for a wide range of industrial vehicles, compo- nents, tractors, private cars, etc.

Barreiros continued broadening his range of products and, in 1958 he signed a contract with the English com- pany David Brown to produce gear boxes, transmissions and conical generators in Spain. One year later the range of engines was widened yet again with the EB-150, with 150 horsepower, both for his own and other companies’ trucks and in 1960 he set up Hanomag-Barreiros to build tractors together with his German partners.

In 1961 he presented the Azor and Super Azor, which were ranges of large highway trucks with the B24 en- gine and could do 100 Km/h on the open road and cost 507,700 pesetas.

In 1964, Barreiros transferred 40% of the capital of Bar- reiros Diesel to its strong American partner, Chrysler Cor- poration, who was in a position to support its expansion and underwrite the firm’s large investments. With this agreement, the company started to manufacture the Dodge Dart and Simca cars, and the Saeta truck. In 1966 Barreiros Chrysler purchased Nazar, a national, albeit virtually unknown manufacturer located in Zaragoza. That same year the financial results presented

by the company were really amazing in comparison with those of rival companies. The factory had rolled out a total of 10,951 industrial vehicles as opposed to the 7,288 built by Pegaso and the 4,099 manufactured by Sava, even presenting a takeover bid for ENASA, which was rejected by the I.N.I. (Instituto Nacional de Indus- tria). The excellent progress made by Barreiros forced Pe- gaso to redesign their trucks and look for technological solutions that were more economical, since Barreiros went through a period selling its vehicles at a cheaper price than its rival.

The sales crisis together with the financial difficulties the company was going through finally put an end to the com- pany’s profitability and in 1967 the Government authorised the takeover of 77% of Barreiros Diesel’s capital by Chrysler. The progressive deterioration of relations between Eduardo and his family and the American consortium ended with the final sale of the remaining shares in 1969.

After the changes, Barreiros was kept as the commercial name for quite a few years, even though the factory in Villaverde changed its name to Chrysler España, S.A. Much later, in 1978, the Barreiros changed their name and started to be known as Dodge, the name previously used for their import models. That year, the French Peu- geot bought all the installations owned by Chrysler in Europe, since the giant was rocked by a number of fi- nancial problems making it draw back to the USA, its

NewsGrupo Antolin

33 Spring 2008

Dodge Dart Princess Sofía at the wheel of a SIMCA 1000 being watched by Prince Juan Carlos, Eduardo Barreiros and Dorinda Ramos (10th April 1965)

NewsGrupo Antolin

Spring 2008 34

home country. Peugeot kept up production of its Dodge trucks for several years, erasing the memory of Barreiros once and for all.

During the 1970s the Galician businessman tried his luck with real estate, and the farming, fishing and mining sectors, but without much fortune. His makings of an industrialist came to light once again in Cuba in the 1980s in the latter part of his life when he returned to working with heavy engines and created the “Taino”. Eduardo Barreiros died in Havana in 1992.

In 1981 the enormous factory in Villaverde was divided up between Peugeot, who used it to produce private cars, and Renault Industrial Vehicles, who purchased in- stallations for the assembly of their heavy duty vehicles. In 2007 Renault finally ceased production and moved its plant to Leganés. PSA currently manufactures the Cit- roën Pluriel and the 3 and 5-door versions of the Peu- geot 207 and the Cabriole Coupé in Villaverde, producing a total output of 136,000 vehicles in 2007.