Northeastern Engineer and Craft
Northeastern Engineering and Crafting (Shinasthana: 上東造專機作, danq-twang-skuks-twran-krer-dzak), usually doing business as Northeastern Motors, is primarily a car manufacturer based in Themiclesia. By sales volume, it is the largest car company in that country.
The company was founded in 1883 as an firm designing and building machines and first built its own road-purpose engine in 1901. From 1904, the company regularly took orders to build engines to vehicle frames, initially specializing in steam engines and then making the transition to petrol engines in the mid-20s. Steam engine production ceased in 1936. The company's long-standing models include the Standard Car, Grand Tourer, Excelsior, Resonation, and Astoroi.
History
Steamers
Following the expansion of the application of engine power to many industries, the concept of non-railway steam engines was initially developed in Casaterra and found its way to Themiclesia in the last years of the 19th century. As the market for such small, mobile steam engines had not yet been explored, NEC hopped to the chance to develop its market niche and escape the intensifying competition of engineering firms in industrializing Themiclesia. The company thus made its A vehicle in 1901 for its director Hi-mri Kyu; however, Kyu retired in 1902, and the steam car project was temporarily suspended while the company adjusted to new management. The suspension continued into 1903 as successive large orders arrived from non-car-related business.
In 1904, seeking new business, the company publicly advertised its "superlatively extensive experience in the building and adjustment of road steam engines" (which ostensibly consisted of only one vehicle) and solicited orders for engines, typically priced at ₤1,000. But NEC sold only the frame with powerplant attached, and customers were expected to furnish their own car bodies to NEC, which would attach it to the frame. Between 1904 and 1912, the company developed several standard patterns (serialized A through E) for its engines, consisting of two cylinders driving the front axle, a boiler, and a condenser; the frame, however, was mutable to accommodate the body the customer specified. 221 cars were delivered over the next 10 years, becoming one of NEC's primary trades. The company's car strategy was to create "a reliable replacement for the private horse carriage".
In 1912, the engine pattern E was finalized and installed first on vehicle 282, dramatically improving condensation performance and thus reducing the need to replenish water. The same year, NEC made its foray into internal combustion engines with the EM-1, for "experimental motor". Then, the following year, the EM-7 appeared. In view of the EM-7's wanting performance (even not attached to a body), the board concluded that petrol engines were "ill-suited as a replacement for horse and carriage" and refocused the company on steam technology. Between 1912 and 1922, engine E was affixed to over 3,000 frames, ushering in the golden age of the company's steam fleet.
The company's prospects dramatically shifted with the company's directors swapping some of their shares with Excelsior Motor, resulting in a collaborative resurrection of NEC's petrol engine in 1921. The resulting engine was built at NEC's shop but christened the Excelsior 25, as it maximally developed 25 horsepower. Internationally, however, steam cars were waning in importance as gasoline cars had become much cheaper to manufacture. Nevertheless, NEC's shop continued to take orders for steam vehicles until as late as 1936. During the last decade of steam car manufacture, they were known as "dowager cars" as wealthy old women seemed most inclined to their serener operation than obtained in contemporary petrol cars. Empress-dowager Gwits placed one of the final orders. Though the operation of steam cars were more complex, this did not matter to their owners, which invariably had chauffeurs.
There is some disagreement whether steam car production would have ceased anyway in 1936, if not for the industrial and economic controls occasioned by total war. The company did not lose money on most of its cars and still made a positive return on them, on the whole, in the 1930s. After the sina qua non engine E was developed, both large and small improvements were still made, leading to patterns F (1931) and G (1933); however, F and G engines are considerably rarer as they arrived well after the petrol engine had become dominant. All the company's steam vehicles were made to order, and craftsmen, when not working on steam vehicles, could be employed elsewhere in the company's large portfolio in engineering. Over the 30 or so years of the company's car production, it delivered 5,245 steam vehicles, the final one leaving the shop on November 30, 1937.
Petrol cars
Despite the company's earlier dismissal of petrol cars as monstrosities, by the early 20s the view from the top had changed considerably. New manufacturing techniques employed in Casaterra were making petrol cars much cheaper to produce, and imports were threatening to crowd out the 20 or so car-manufacturing workshops in Themiclesia.
Post-war
After the Dik-ma factory was recovered from the government's commandeering, NEC immediately converted part of the facility back to a car factory and re-started manufacturing the Excelsior III in 1947. One year later, it introduced an update called Excelsior IV, with a smaller but more efficient engine, developing 10 hp, to enable longer driving under the government's stringent fuel controls. Between 1947 and 1949, NEC held a virtual monopoly on private car manufacture, as the other car factories had not yet been returned to their owners following continued war-related requirements.
In 1949, the Excelsior IV was rebranded as the Standard Motor Car or Standard Car in what International Motor called "one of the most deviant marketing ploys ever". NEC was aware that many wealthy Themiclesians had been waiting for an opportunity to purchase after a 12-year ban on the manufacture and importation of private cars, and the temporary absence of competitors was a golden opportunity. But ever since the Dik-ma factory was returned, NEC had been concerned that the government could commandeer the factory again to produce tractors and trucks, necessary for the reconstruction effort, but at a minimal profit margin. By calling its vehicle the "standard car", it was associated with the new communities that sprung up around highways—virtually none of the people who had to move to these new communities could afford NEC's car that retained its pre-war price of £3,500.
However, the new name was aimed to achieve more than government acquiescence. As International Motor notes, "by calling its flagship the 'standard', it implied that all other other cars carried over from before the war or produced under wartime stringency on the market were not only inferior, but substandard. The name compelled many people to consider changing cars even if they did not need to or could hardly afford it." It attempted to abrogate the stigma of the motor car as a luxury out of step with national destitution but as an object that ought to be had, at least to those who had the money to pay for it.
Thus, in the absence of competitors, the Excelsior IV cum Standard Car achieved 2,000 sales by the end of 1951, many of which were to government ministers and other prominent figures in society. Dozens were bought by government agencies for their dignitaries, though the iniquity of a luxury car did not necessarily escape all notice when the nation balked at the extension of rationing year after year. In 1950, a Times of Themiclesia reported noted that "if it is thought intolerable that government officials should need to travel on used Jeeps or military trucks to locations not served by railways, one must question if it is any more tolerable they should expend the public purse to couch themselves in silk plush and velvet when the rest of the nation must subsist on three ounces of cooking oil per week."