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DAF Trucks NV is a Dutch truck manufacturing company and a division of Paccar. Its headquarters and main plant are in Eindhoven. Cabs and axle assemblies are produced at its Westerlo plant in Belgium. Some of the truck models sold with the DAF brand are designed and built by Leyland Trucks at their Farington plant in Preston, England. ==History== In 1928, Hubert "Hub" van Doorne founded the company as ''Commanditaire Vennootschap Hub van Doorne's Machinefabriek''. His co-founder and investor was A.H. Huenges, managing director of a brewery. Van Doorne had repaired Huenges' car several times. Huenges was so pleased with his work that he offered to finance him in business. Hub started to work in a small workshop on the grounds of the brewery. In 1932, the company, now run by Hub and his brother, Wim van Doorne, changed its name to ''Van Doorne's Aanhangwagen Fabriek'' (Van Doorne's Trailer Factory), abbreviated to ''DAF''. Huenges left the company in 1936 and the DAF company was now completely in the hands of the van Doorne brothers. DAF developed the Trado conversions to convert 4×2 Ford trucks to an off-road 6×4 drive. One of DAF's few armoured vehicles was the M39 Pantserwagen, using developments of this Trado drivetrain. This was too late for WWII and the invasion of the Netherlands, and only three saw combat. After the Second World War, luxury cars and lorries were very scarce. This meant a big opportunity for DAF. In 1949, the company started making lorries, trailers and buses, changing its name to ''Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek'' (Van Doorne's Automobile Factory). The first lorry model was the DAF A30. Through the 1950s, DAF was a major supplier to the re-equipping of the Dutch Army's softskin vehicles with models such as the DAF YA-126 and DAF YA-328 'Dikke Daf'. These used the all-wheel-drive H-drive developed from the Trado conversions. In late 1954, Hub van Doorne had the idea to use belt drive, just like many of the machines in the factory that were belt-driven, to drive road vehicles. In 1955, DAF produced its first drafts of a car belt drive system. Over the next few years, the design was developed and refined. In February 1958, DAF demonstrated a small belt-driven four-seater car at the Dutch car show (the AutoRAI). The public reaction was very positive and 4000 cars were ordered. In 1959, DAF started selling the world's first car with a continuously variable transmission, the small four-seater DAF 600. This was the first of a series of models to be released in subsequent years, including the DAF 33, DAF 44, DAF 55 and DAF 66, all using the innovative Variomatic transmission system. In 1967, DAF opened a new plant in Born for car production. The 44 was the first model to be produced there. In 1972, International Harvester of Chicago, IL bought a 33% stake in DAF (with the Dutch government holding 25% and the Van Doorne family holding the remaining 42%), forming a joint-venture. This agreement lasted until 1981. DAF sold its passenger car division, along with what is now the NedCar factory in Born, in 1975 to the Swedish company Volvo Cars, leaving DAF to concentrate on its successful line of lorries. In 1987, DAF merged with the Leyland Trucks division of Rover Group and was floated on the Dutch stock exchange as DAF NV. The new company traded as Leyland DAF in the UK and as DAF elsewhere. DAF Bus was split off in 1990 to become a part of United Bus. Following difficulties in the British market, DAF NV went bankrupt in 1993. A new company, ''DAF Trucks'', appeared in the Netherlands as a result of a management buy-out of the Dutch operations, as did Leyland Trucks and LDV (vans) in the UK. In 1996, PACCAR acquired DAF Trucks. DAF Trucks and Leyland Trucks were rejoined in 1998 when PACCAR also acquired Leyland Trucks. On 9 January 2012, PACCAR installed the cornerstone of the new plant in the city of Ponta Grossa in the state of Paraná, Brazil. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「DAF Trucks」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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