MOTOCHI50, LA ÚNICA MOTO DISEÑADA EN CHILE: UN EMPRENDIMIENTO PRIVADO EN UNA ECONOMÍA EN CRISIS. 1972-1974

Abstract

This article aims to determine the origins of the Motochi50 vehicle, the only motorcycle designed in Chile, identifying its temporal, political-economic and technological context, with the goal of putting it into value. Primary sources were consulted through in-depth interviews, analysis of publications, documents of the time and the "product autopsy" method. Secondary sources were also used, mainly through bibliographic review. Consequently, it could be established that the Motochi50 was the result of a private entrepreneurship of Chilean engineers, led by Eduardo Alvear, who designed and built the motorcycle to satisfy the demand for a means of personal transportation in Chile during 1972. It was also determined that its mode of productive organization was of a distributed nature, an aspect that was advanced for its time and that today is practiced on a world scale. For its production, the manufacture of parts was outsourced, overseeing their compliance with desing specifications. The parts were manufactured by specialists who had the necessary infrastructure and equipment, being the final process of integration of all parts supervised by Solutec Ltda. The production model used was contrary to the economic-political trend that the prevailing socialist government proclaimed. Such was the development of a private company in a social, political and economic context that was heading towards a crisis of national dimension and that will culminate with the coup d'etat of September 11, 1973. The production of Motochi50 ended after the coup d'etat, when the new government opened the economy to foreign trade and the Motochi project could not continue due to arrival of motorcycles from abroad, like the Japanese ones, with better technology and with a convenient price. The motorcycle was commercialized until 1975, although the factory closed definitively in 1977, a date still to be confirmed.