Light truck, bus chassis and tractor maker Agrale has begun to sell the Marruá off-roader, entering the 4×4 vehicles segment in Brazil for the first time.
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The Marruá has been developed in both military and civilian versions. Prototypes of the military version are undergoing testing by the Brazilian army and Agrale expects to sell most of its new off-roaders to militar buyers.
It has initially built a batch of 100 units of the civilian version to test the market before launching volume production.
The Marruá is based on the now-extinct Engesa EE-12 off-roader. Engesa was a private Brazilian military equipment maker that produced armoured vehicles, weapons and tanks. In the mid-80s the company introduced the military EE-12 off-roader (named Engesa-4 for the civilian market) but production ended when Engesa shut down in 1993.
Around 2000, some ex-workers of Engesa established a co-operative of engineers and began a project to modernise the EE-12. The result was the Marruá, named after a Brazilian wild ox. But lacking the money to produce the vehicle, the co-operative sold the project to Agrale which invested $US4.2 million to start production at its Caxias do Sul plant, in Rio Grande do Sul state.
The production Marruá has a steel body and similar design to the EE-12, but modern components. It has a 132hp MWM 2.8-litre turbo diesel engine, an Eaton manual transmission and Dana axles.
Agrale plans to sell the Marruá in Brazil and other Latin American markets.
Established in 1962, Agrale has five plants in Brazil plus a factory in Colombia. It is the biggest microbus chassis maker in Brazil and also produces light trucks, tractors and, recently, started to make cargo vans. It also assembles Cagiva and Husqvarna motorcycles and makes scooters.
Last year, Agrale sold 3,640 bus chassis and 675 light trucks and vans.
Rogério Louro
