Lateral view from the "Ballena"The Tachó’s brothers (Antoni & Guillem) owned a garage where they repaired cars and motorbikes by the end of the 40s in Manresa (Catalonia). They were also specialized in improving car engines. Due to the scarcity of spare parts, they decided to produce their own brand carburettors (Tachó), and they installed them in the cars that they repaired.
In their free time, Tachó‘s brothers created their first car. It was called ballena (whale) due to the likeliness with the mammal. The first version had three wheels, and then a specialist called Panosa created a new body with four wheels and more stylised lines. The motor was a 648 cc with 18 horses of potency, and the weight was 660 kilos. With 3, 90 meters long and 2, 20 meters wide, two persons could easily fit inside the car. In August the 7th of 1950 the car got the approval of the ministry of industry, and it was registered with the plate number: B-80.347.
Lateral view from the "Ballena" A friend of the two brothers collaborated with the next project; he is called Josep Vila, and he would be one of the future AUSA founders. They took part in some local races with their car.
Some time after they thought about creating a new car with lower characteristics
and a lower cost, with an eye to a possible higher production. They simplified
to the minimum their prototype, and they created a car with a 247 cc and 3 h.
motor. The simplicity also concerned the size of the car, so it became smaller.
Its new appearance also gave it a particular name; they called it “coca”, which is a typical Catalan cake.
In November of 1953 it was approved by the ministry and registered with the green plate number (to test it): B-172. A great number of tests were done to create a better car which could be sold to the public.
The Coca doing some proofs In this moment it appeared the third piece of the future project: Maurici Perramón. He was a business manager, and a habitual customer of Tacho’s garage. The new member suggested creating an enterprise; he said that he would give the locals to produce and the money. Therefore, Maurici Perramón became the manager, Josep Vila was in charge of supplies and personnel, and Tachó’s brothers were the technicians.
On 1956 they created AUSA (Automóviles Utilitarios s.a.). The “coca” was the base of their first car: PTV 250 (PTV are the first letters of their names). Guillem Tachó and his wife went to Madrid to get the approval from the Ministry to produce it. The journey became an extraordinary test for them and the car because of the weather conditions (-10 º C). Finally they got the approval from the engineers, although they faced some problems.
Two of the registered patents from the PTV 
The start of the production created a revolution in Manresa, a great number of companies supplied the products to produce it, and AUSA also produced the units required to create the cars.
Old advertisement from the PTVThe car was produced during 5 years and about 1.250 units were produced of the 125 model. It was distributed all over Spain, and also some units were exported to Portugal and the United States. Its price was approximately between 45.000 and 55.000 pts. (270 – 330 euros). The car became quite popular, and some people took part in car races with one. Some postcards arrived to the AUSA factory from people travelling in all Europe with AUSA’s cars, and they said that the car worked wonderfully.
The Development Plans of the franquist government appeared together with the car, which has been considered one of the principal causes of the disappearance of the microcars in Spain: the Seat 600.
The characteristics of this new car could not be compared with the ones of the microcars, and it counted on both the financial support of the government and a mass production.
Some new models were not launched to the market, such as the new PTV 400 that was only produced as a prototype. There was also a van version of the PTV 250 from which only about 30 units were produced.
In 1961 the microcar’s production finally ended. However, this did not mean the end of AUSA, since they started producing a little appliance with three wheels and a box for industrial use. Nowadays they are leaders in the production of this famous appliance called Dumper.
We could say that AUSA is the most antique car brand in Spain, and the unique microcar producer that could survive the “micro killer” Seat 600.