Pony.ai presents these days in Hanover a purely electric, autonomous heavy Level Level 4 truck and is preparing to enter the European market dynamically.
More than half a century after the Greek appeared Pony in Thessaloniki, the same name appears again on a vehicle that aspires to change transport. Only this time it's not the simple, squared car of Greek NAMCO, but a huge electric truck full of sensors, computers and artificial intelligence.
The Chinese autonomous driving company Pony.ai made the European premiere of the new Robotruck generation in IAA Transportation 2026, the major exhibition of professional vehicles opened today, 15 September, in Hanover and will last until 20 September. The first presentation had taken place one day earlier on the exhibition's press day.
And somewhere here, for a Greek who even knows the story of the car, the name inevitably causes a smile.
Pony? But we had that more than 50 years ago. Of course, the «They stole» The title is the pun of history. There is no evidence linking Pony.ai company to NAMCO or showing that the Chinese company took the name from the Greek car.
From Pony, Thessaloniki to Robotruck, Chinese The new Chinese «Pony» It is literally on the other end of technology.
This is one. a pure electric heavy truck with the possibility of self-propelled Level 4, developed by Pony.ai in collaboration with the state-owned Chinese car manufacturer GAC Commercial Vehicle. Based on the heavy vehicle electric platform GAC T9 and incorporates the fourth generation of Pony.ai's Robotrock autonomous driving system. The company plans to start mass production within 2026.
Level 4 means that, within specified conditions and operating areas, the truck can move without the driver having to control the vehicle.
And we're not just talking about an original exhibition. Pony.ai already has in China a few hundred autonomous Level 4 trucks on commercial routes. Some move with a safety guide, while others run routes without a man at the wheel.
The company has already started discussions with European governments and ports for tests in Europe and states that it seeks the entry of Robotrocks into both the European and the Middle East within the next two years. The reason is simple: transport needs drivers and Europe does not have enough.
According to the latest IRU data, approximately 502,000 truck drivers remain vacant in Europe, a figure corresponding to about 13% of the sector's positions. In fact, about 20% of today's European drivers are expected to retire by 2030. The OPAE has pointed out that, although there is no separate quantitative data on Greece in research, the same demographic and labour pressures directly affect Greek transport.
To this problem the new Pony wants to answer. The company sees particular interest in transport between logistics centers, on fixed long-distance routes and mainly in and around large ports, where a truck can move on specific and repetitive routes.
For Greece this has a special interest. Piraeus, Thessaloniki, Thriasios and large freight hubs are theoretically exactly the environment in which such technologies could be used. For now, however, there is no announced test or marketing of Pony.ai Robotruck in Greece.
But the distance is getting shorter quickly. Only today Lidl and Einride announced to Germany the normal use on a public road of an autonomous truck without even a driver's cab, with German KBA's approval.
Our Pony had preceded half a century.
The paradox is, when today's Pony.ai was founded in Silicon Valley at the end of 2016In Greece the name Pony already had a history of four decades. The Chinese company was founded by James Peng and Tiancheng Lou and is currently active in Robotaxi, Robotruck and autonomous driving systems, while listed on Nasdaq and Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The Greek Pony had appeared much earlier. The Kontoguri brothers presented in Thessaloniki International Exhibition in 1972 a simple multi-purpose car based on the mechanical parts of Citroën 2CV. In 1973 NAMCO was founded in Thessaloniki and its production followed. Pony-Citroën.
It wasn't luxury, it wasn't fast, and it certainly didn't have... artificial intelligence.
But it was cheap, extremely simple mechanical, lightweight, easy to maintain and suitable for both professional and agricultural use. These very characteristics made it one of the most recognizable vehicles of Greek construction.
In the best operating period of the plant, production had reached up to 24 vehicles per day, while some 380 workers were employed. Pony was used by individuals, businesses, public services and the Armed Forces, and exports were also made to several countries, including the USA.
Historical references do not entirely agree on the total production number, but several sources place the production of the first period near 30,000 units until the early 1980s.
Various attempts for younger generations followed and production restarted. NAMCO presented at times new Pony with different mechanical parts, but the model never returned to mass production in the way it had happened in the 1970s and 1980s. And so we reach 2026.
The Pony of Thessaloniki was one of the symbols of an era in which Greece was trying to acquire its own car industry.
The Chinese Pony It comes to Europe at a time when the automotive industry turns into a software, artificial intelligence and autonomous machine industry. The first had a Citroën engine, sheet metal, steering wheel and a driver.
The second has batteries, cameras, sensors, computers and aspires at some point not to need any man behind the wheel.
Half a century of technological distance. Same name: Pony. And for us Greeks, however much the present Pony.ai has nothing to do with the Greek car, the name had already written its own story long before the Chinese arrived in Hanover.
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