Csepel made motorcycles in Hungary from 1951-1975. They were
sold under many other brand names including Danuvia, Tunde, Panni, &
Pannonia. In the United States they were marketed under the White marque.
The Manfred Weiss Steel and Metal Works was renamed to Csepel Works after the Communist Party came to power in Hungary. The factory began producing bicycles in 1928 under the WM marque with the first motorcycles appearing in 1930. These BMA style machines were built until 1935 and were followed by the 86cc Turan. Around 10,000 motorcycles were built prior to the destruction of Budapest by the Russians during WWII, which, after the country had swung to hard right politics, they entered on the side of the Axis powers. When the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, the Weiss family avoided deportation to the death camps and escaped to Portugal, reportedly with the help of sympathetic Hungarian government officials. During the war the factory built engines for Messerschmitt.
Production resumed after the war in 1947, with the
introduction of the Csepel Tura 100. Pannonia machines were built in another
section of the WM works and produced 125cc and 250cc machines.
Pannonia found a market in the Soviet Union, building and exporting around 40 thousand machines per year. These were quite good machines when introduced, but as no R&D work was done during the Soviet years the bikes were very dated by the 70s with the result that Western markets were uninterested even at greatly discounted prices.
In the early 70s new models were introduced, the Pannonia T5, P10 and P20, and later a P21 and P12. These were exported to Asia, Europe and the United States (as the White) with mixed reception.
Pannonia ceased production in October 1975.
Csepel had continued to produce bicycles but their products too were on the wrong side of history, with much of their export going to Iran. The Schwinn firm took a commanding share in Csepel in 1989, but that company failed in 1993 and by 2003 Csepel had closed up shop.
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