Scene from a movie I cannot remember the name of but it has a lot of AEKI in it.
As I’ve mentioned in the previous round, in 1958 AEKI acquired Sten-sil AB, a transmission and axle manufacturer founded in 1915. Sten stands for Swedish Transmission EngiNeering. The company had it’s base of operation in Lund during this time.
At the time, Sten was developing a small, front wheel drive vehicle with codename 3C-45, which after the acquisition by AEKI became the AEKI 45 “Krabba”
The Krabba was pretty much ready by the time AEKI acquired Sten-sil so it was launched just 6 months after. It had a unique to it 3-cylinder engine driving the front wheels. They were a cheaper and smaller companion to the big rear-wheel drive AEKI.
By this point AEKI had pretty much 2 operating bases, one in Malmö and another in Lund. Both pretty independent from each other, although it was pretty clear the Malmö part is bankrolling and making decision for Lund part.
Basically, Malmö was making the conservative RWD “Hundred” series car, while Lund was making the innovative FWD “Sten” car. Under the same umbrella.
Funnily enough, while there are many arguments stemming from fanboy who think their brands is the best. Fans of AEKI are always arguing about Malmö cars and Lund cars. Despite them being the same brand.
AEKI S69 “Skeva”
The Krabba stayed in the market until 1968 when Sten-AEKI introduced the next generation car. Codename 6C-69. Actual name AEKI S69.
The S69 was being developed during the entirety of Krabba time in the market. 1958 to it’s introduction in 1968. It was completely different to the first Sten-AEKI. Still front wheel drive, but larger, more comfortable, with a completely new suspension and engine.
Curiously, it’s engine was longitudinal mounted. And it was a tiny V6 displacing at first only 1700cc this is good for 80hp through a very modern 5-speed gearbox developed by Sten-AEKI (which specialised in gearbox anyway) to the front wheels. The suspension is double wishbone front and solid axle rear. It also has front disc brake.
The idea was to maximized the space inside which is accommodating, although not that plush. AEKI decided to move the 200 series car slightly upmarket during the introduction of the Krabba so the two cars are not directly competing.
Of course, the idea of a single company with 2 bases of operation is incredibly costly. But it stayed this way until the rationalization during the 1980’s. Which we’ll be talking about later.
The S69 Skeva was made until 1980 when it was replaced by S80 “Skeva II”.