Chapter 289 Military Truck
Half a month later, in order to show his importance to Andros's machinery factory, Constantine personally invited a team including Armament Minister Yannis and Transport Minister Kapodistrias to visit Andros Machinery Factory.
Andros specially dispatched a motorcade to pick up the visiting team of more than a dozen people to the machinery factory in the industrial zone.
The car that came to pick up everyone was exactly the car produced by Andros Machinery Factory imitating the T-type car.
Cars are still a rare and expensive means of transportation in Greece. Therefore, when a large motorcade consisting of more than a dozen T-type cars appeared in front of everyone, the mighty momentum and pomp easily attracted everyone's attention.
The most prominent feature of this car is the square carriage. Compared with the carriage, the front of the car is low and narrow, and the body color is black.
"Is this a civilian car produced by Andros Machinery Factory?" Kapodistrias came forward curiously, looking at it, and said.
The driver sitting in the cab is an employee of Andros Machinery Factory.
In order to let the machinery factory's cars show their faces in front of senior government officials this time, these drivers are all operated by mechanical engineers of the machinery factory.
"Yes, sir, these vehicles have not yet been launched on the market, but they will soon be. They will be the main products of our company for a period of time." The driver held the steering wheel with both hands and answered respectfully.
Although he didn't know the identity of the person asking the question, he was dressed in a black suit, with his golden hair combed meticulously, full of style and aura, obviously a high-ranking official.
"Okay, Mr. Capodistrias, let's take a ride and experience it. Just observing from the outside, you can't experience the mystery of this new type of transportation." Constantine personally opened the back door and pulled Capodistrias into the car.
After the two of them sat down, Constantine looked around at the interior decoration of the car: Due to the square shape of the car, the space inside the car is large, even if two people sit in the back seat at the same time, people will not feel constrained and narrow;
The black leather seats, and the front, back, left and right windows are equipped with several transparent glass panels, and the interior lighting is very good.
Although the decoration is not luxurious, it also makes people feel clean and tidy, and the ride is comfortable.
After the car started, more than a dozen cars lined up in a long queue and slowly drove towards the Andros Machinery Factory in the industrial zone.
"Your Highness, such a car should be very expensive. If Andros wants to sell such a car in Greece, I am afraid the market will be very limited." As the Minister of Transport of Greece, Minister Kapodistrias naturally has the experience of riding in a car.
Cars in this era are real luxury goods. If you are not a wealthy family, you can't afford a car at all.
"Who knows? It depends on how Andros's work is going," Constantine shrugged and said.
Although Ford's Model T was known for its low price in history, the Andros Machinery Factory is not as strong as Ford after all.
Greece's industrial level is naturally not as good as the world's first industrial country-the United States.
Even if it is the same car, the cost and cost are naturally different.
"If the price is too high, it will be very difficult to promote such a car, and even the government will not be able to give too much support," Kapodistrias gave Constantine a shot of prevention.
As the Minister of Transportation, Kapodistrias naturally understood the intention of Crown Prince Constantine to pull him to the Andros Machinery Factory.
With the promotion and application of electricity, Athens' urban transportation now has trams that extend in all directions, but trams are limited by fixed routes and are inconvenient to promote.
There are still a large number of public horse-drawn carriages on the streets of Athens, providing services to the public.
A large number of horses running on the streets, which leads to the fact that horse manure and urine excrement can be seen everywhere on the streets of Athens, which is smelly and disgusting.
Over the years, the smell of feces and urine has been lingering in the whole city, and people walking on the streets always cover their noses.
The sanitation problems caused by horse-drawn carriages have always been a headache for citizens.
With the invention of cars, taxis have appeared on the streets of London and Paris, replacing some of the uses of horse-drawn carriages.
Constantine took the Minister of Transport to investigate whether the cars produced by the Andros Factory could replace the criticized horse-drawn carriages in Athens and find more customers for the machinery factory.
Now looking at Kapodistrias's reaction, he is obviously very satisfied with the performance of the cars produced by the Andros Machinery Factory, and then he began to worry about the expenses of purchasing a large number of cars for use as taxis in Athens.
Half an hour later, the inspection team came to the conference room of the Andros Machinery Factory.
"Andros, this is the Minister of Armaments Yannis, and this is the Minister of Transport Mr. Kapodistrias." Constantine introduced the two to Andros with an expression that you know.
Sure enough, after hearing the identities of the two, Andros smiled and shook hands eagerly, saying, "Welcome Mr. Yannis and Mr. Kapodistrias to my factory."
After the greetings, Yannis, a soldier, went straight to the point: "Mr. Andros, the products of the Andros Machinery Factory are already familiar to the Greek Army. Now the Greek Army is equipped with a large number of products from the machinery factory."
"Our army's logistics department needs to be equipped with a truck for carrying goods." Yannis paused here.
"If you can produce a truck that satisfies the military, Mr. Andros, you will definitely be satisfied with the military's order."
Currently, a large number of motorcycles produced by Andros Machinery Factory are in service in the Greek Army.
However, the price of motorcycles is completely incomparable with trucks, and the profits are naturally much smaller.
If we can successfully win the army's truck order, the machinery factory may have a headache due to insufficient production capacity for a long time to come.
Moreover, once such trucks meet the requirements of the military, they can naturally be sold to the market like civilian vehicles.
According to Andros's inference, not only is there a broad market for cars, but there is also considerable demand for trucks in Greek society.
Andros signaled to his assistant, quickly brought a stack of drawings, placed them on the table in the conference room, and introduced to Giannis and several other military technicians: "This is specially developed by our machinery factory for the military. The truck is 2 meters wide, 5 meters wide and 1 meter high."
"The tires are made of rubber and are 21 centimeters wide. Of course, if the army needs it, the truck's tires can be converted into solid rubber tires."
"It has certain off-road performance. There are two people in the cab. In the extreme state, the carriage can load 7 tons of cargo. The 60-horsepower engine gives it plenty of power."
Andros said to the officers: "This can fully satisfy the army's logistics work."
Several junior officers gathered around Giannis and whispered about the design of the Andros Machinery Factory.
"What's its range? How far can it run when it's full of fuel?" an officer asked.
Not only were the citizens fed up with horse-drawn carriages on the streets, but the logistics officers were also fed up with serving the large numbers of mules and horses.
"It is equipped with a large fuel tank. At a speed of 35 kilometers per hour, the range can reach 210 kilometers," Andros replied.
"If there are no problems with these designs, we will soon be able to make prototypes and hand them over to the army for testing." Andros is full of confidence in his company's products.