TEMAX S.A.

Industry	Automotive
Founded	1925 (Tournikiotis-Tangalakis), 1934 (Tangalakis), 1965 (Temax)
Headquarters	Athens , Greece
Products	Buses (until 1963), Fire Trucks
Website	http://www.temax.gr/

TEMAX is a specialised manufacturer of fire and rescue vehicles, trailers and equipment based in Athens, Greece. It also manufactures snow-clearing equipment.

The company was founded in 1925, when Petros Tangalakis joined with a partner G. Tournikiotis, a vehicle body manufacturer based in Athens, founded in 1922. The new joint company saw significant growth becoming the largest in its field, producing a variety of vehicles on imported chassis. In 1934, Tangalakis split off, creating his own company, which remained the leading Greek vehicle produced for nearly three decades, also briefly venturing into passenger car manufacture. During the Axis occupation of Greece in World War II, the factory was put under German control, but they resumed vehicle production in 1945.

The following years were Tangalakis' "Golden Era", where the company (operating two factories in Athens) focused on all-metal bus construction on chassis by Studebaker, Daimler, Volvo, and other manufacturers, producing several models remembered to this date (in some of which it introduced extensive chassis modification to accommodate higher loads and/or different vehicle dimensions). The company's know-how was undoubtedly enriched through its assembly of Wayne models in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

In 1963, facing strong competition from other bus manufacturing companies in Greece, it ventured into fire-fighting vehicle manufacture mainly on International Harvester chassis (chassis assembled by Tangalakis from SKD kits). In 1965, the Tangalakis family, Alexandros Ginis, Fanourios Gyrtatos & Antonis Kalogeropoulos, created TEMAX, a new company entirely focused on fire-fighting and other specialty vehicle production, which operates successfully to date. Another branch of the original company, though, has continued the business under the Tangalakis name as importers and distributors of fire-fighting and rescue equipment, vehicle parts, etc.^[1]

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  1936 Tangalakis-Austin light car
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  Inside view of 1936 Tangalakis-Austin light car
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  1935 Tangalakis inter-city bus (International chassis)
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  Inside view of a 1936 Tangalakis inter-city bus
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  1956 Tangalakis bus (Volvo chassis)
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  1962 Tangalakis coach
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  TEMAX fire-fighting truck on assembled International truck chassis (1965)
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  TEMAX old fire-fighting vehicle
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  TEMAX modern fire engine

• L. S. Skartsis, "Greek Vehicle and Machine Manufacturers 1800 to Present: A Pictorial History", Marathon (2012) (eBook)
• "P. Tangalakis", article in "To Volan" (Greek auto magazine), July 18, 1957
• A. Chronis, "P. Tangalakis", article in "Pullman&Leoforeio" (Greek commercial vehicle magazine), September 1992
• L.S. Skartsis and G.A. Avramidis, "Made in Greece", Typorama, Patras, Greece (2003) ISBN 960-7620-30-5 (republished by the Patras Science Park, 2007)
• E. Roupa and E. Hekimoglou, "I istoria tou aftokinitou stin Ellada (History of automobile in Greece)", Kerkyra - Economia publishing, Athens (2009) ISBN 978-960-8386-95-2

• http://www.temax.gr
• http://www.tangalakis.gr
• Best Car Covers 2023
• Greek bus builders in Bus-planet.com