Sisu Auto is a truck manufacturer based in Raseborg, Finland. Its name comes from the Finnish word sisu meaning guts, grit and determination.
Sisu Auto has a subsidiary company, "Sisu Defence", producing high mobility tactical vehicles for military use.
Production
Civil trucks
The currently available Sisu Polar variants are with 3, 4 or 5 axles in various layouts. The applications are: Sisu Crane - crane trucks Sisu Rock - dump trucks Sisu Roll - hook loader Sisu Timber - timber trucks Sisu Works - road maintenance trucks Sisu Carrier – heavy machinery carrier
Military trucks
Sisu 4×4
Sisu 6×6
Sisu 8×8
Sisu 10×10
History
1931 to 1939
The company was established on 1 April 1931 as Oy Suomen Autoteollisuus Ab (SAT). It originated from two neighbouring Helsinki-based automobile coach builders, Autokoritehdas and Autoteollisuus-Bilindustri, both of which had fallen into financial troubles by the beginning of the 1930s. The banks, which were funding both companies, pressed them to put together their operations under one company. The founders were Emil Anton Winckelmann, Lars Wilhelm Åberg and Karl Arthur Nordgren. In the first company meeting the company general manager was selected John Hellsten and the technical manager was appointed Tor Nessling.
At first SAT continued the coachbuilding business which it had inherited from its predecessors, but also put into practice the plan of building own vehicles, which was evolved already earlier, when Autoteollisuus-Bilindustri had ordered few Volvo chassis for outfitting. These chassis formed the basis for the first pre-series of vehicles.
As soon as the business started, SAT started to seek a good brand for its products. In the early summer of 1932 the company set up a name competition which was advertised in the main newspapers of Helsinki. The competition got a lot of attention and some 3000-4000 suggestions were received. The jury met in Hotel Kämp in Helsinki to select the winner in the middle of June 1932. Three candidates were selected: Sisu ("guts; stamina; stubbornness, determination"), Karhu ("bear") and Haukka ("hawk"). Eventually, Sisu became selected. As many people had suggested the successful name, the winner of the 1,000 marks' price was selected by lottery - he was young Veikko Arohonka, actually signed up by his older brother Eino, who later became a writer.
The first nine Sisus, models S-321 and S-323, were handed over to the customers in 1932. Six of them were lorries and one was a bus. The first production series, based heavily on Volvo components, were made in 1933.
Beginning of domestic vehicle production led to an odd episode - the Finnish government became concerned about losing toll incomes because of the locally built vehicles. In 1933 Dr. Juho Jännes was assigned to investigate the financial impact of domestically produced automobiles. The outcome was that if 500 of the vehicles annually sold in Finland were produced domestically, the state would lose 700,000 marks because of reduced toll income but the benefit due to employment effect would be between 17-27 million marks.
John Hellsten was replaced by Tor Nessling as general manager in 1932. Nessling started to develop the business determinedly; the technical challenges caused by weak locally produced parts were resolved by time and the degree of domestic work could be increased. Another, persistent problem was the continuous lack of cash reserves. Nessling tried to lobby the government underlining the positive effect of domestic vehicle production, but he was not listened, and the state reduced the tolls of imported vehicles making competition more intense. The company owners did not believe in the potential of domestic vehicle industry and Nessling could obtain a large part of the shares from the funding banks for relatively cheap, eventually owning 80% of SAT. The continuous pressure and repeating setbacks did not discourage the personnel and management, who did what ever it took to solve out the challenges. Over time the technical quality was reached to a such level that SAT could convince the customers that the relatively high price of Sisus, compared to imported vehicles, pays off due to their robustness.
In 1934 The Volvo-based S-321 and S-341 series were followed by short-lived SO-series, which was already in 1935 replaced by the SH-series, with which SB-series was produced in parallel 1938–1941. The first three-axle lorry was produced in 1935.