Bravia

Portuguese Army major João Donas-Botto founded Bravia—Sociedade Luso-Brasileira de Veículos e Equipamentos, S.A.R.L.—in March 1967, after United States authorities refused to license or supply Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando armored cars for Portugal's African wars. Donas-Botto obtained access to a V-100 and recruited former Cadillac Gage personnel with technical material; a 1977 United States congressional hearing later treated the transfer as unlicensed. Early Chaimite hulls were built with Sorefame support at Belém in Lisbon before Bravia moved vehicle production to the acquired Porto Alto/Samora Correia works associated with VM Veículos Motorizados. The Portuguese-designed and modified Chaimite became the company's defining product: a welded-armour, amphibious 4x4 family produced principally as the V-200 personnel carrier and V-600 mortar carrier, with command, anti-tank, ambulance, recovery, riot-control and prototype fire-support derivatives. Frequently repeated totals of roughly 500–600 vehicles cannot yet be reconciled variant by variant. Bravia broadened into road-going and tactical trucks. The light Gazela 4x4 progressed from a 1969 experimental vehicle through a 20-truck Portuguese Army order and later civilian and fire-appliance work. The medium Leopardo and heavier dual-rear-wheel Pantera were 6x6 severe-service families with cargo, tanker, recovery, dump and fire bodies. The armored Commando Mk III was developed from Gazela architecture in 1977 for internal-security and export customers. Bravia also assembled a small 1970s run of Kaiser-Jeep/Willys-derived M-201 utility vehicles from imported and local components. Elefante and Tigre 6x6 concepts appear in range lists but stronger Portuguese accounts identify them as unbuilt paper projects; they are therefore recorded in the scope decision but not presented as production models. Similarly, proposed Chaimite 6x6 Mk II and 8x8 Mk III developments did not reach series manufacture. By 1995 the company had failed, and the Portuguese Army obtained technical records, parts, twenty incomplete V-200 hulls and the surviving V-400 prototype; OGME retained tooling and repair capability after private manufacture ended. Some administrative accounts place final closure in 1996, but the 1995 asset transfer is the catalog's industrial endpoint. Bravia's six admitted physical families reflect recoverable complete-vehicle output without converting every mission variant or unrealized proposal into a separate model.

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