DuPont: Car armor for the middle class (not sold in USA)
$12,000 makes your Chevy or Kia bulletproof. Updated with comments from Temple profs who study this stuff
DuPont Co., Wilmington, is boosting sales of Armura, its 200-pound "bulletproof Kevlar fiber and SentryGlas car kit," which adds about $12,000 to the price of a car, "to middle class Brazilian families with Chevrolets, Hondas and yes, even low-cost Kias," Reuters says here. DuPont also hopes to bulletproof taxis for the 2014 World Cup soccer champtionship and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olypmics.
"We wanted to bring a solution to a family that wants protection but doesn't have money to afford classic car armor," said Carlos Benatto, business manager for DuPont Armura.
So: Armor Lite! "A DuPont-approved technician replaces a car's windows with SentryGlas, and puts Kevlar panels behind the door panels. Because it is relatively light weight, the kit does not cut fuel efficiency," according to the company.
So: Armor Lite! "A DuPont-approved technician replaces a car's windows with SentryGlas, and puts Kevlar panels behind the door panels. Because it is relatively light weight, the kit does not cut fuel efficiency," according to the company.
"Armura, sold only in Brazil, protects against bullets up to .38 caliber. Sales rose 70 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with 2011. DuPont said annual sales of Armura amounted to tens of millions of U.S. dollars... Sales for the company's Safety & Protection unit, which makes Armura, rose 17 percent in 2011 to $3.9 billion."
Sold only in Brazil? "We developed DuPont Armura for Brazil, specifically for the largest middle-class civilian population with this type of needed protection, for which traffic light robbery and fast kidnapping are major concerns," DuPont spokeswoman Catherine Andriatis told me.
"It's a different market. Different ammunition," for one thing: "The caliber (of bullets) available in Brazil is much smaller," Andriatis added. "Each country, including the U.S., has different issues and needs. There is no plan at this time to provide Armura beyond Brazil."
I asked the folks at Temple University's criminology studies group about this. "The upper middle class" in Brazilian cities "have lived thorugh several cycles of kidnapping and carjacking in which stors of the police have often participated... They mistrust the plice," so "bulletproofing cars has become a popular option," and "DuPont's armored kit was quickly accepted" when it rolled out in 2008 because it's half the cost of rival packages, and weighs less," writes Temple's Philip N. Evanson, co-author of Living in the Crossfire: Favela Residents, Drug Dealers and Police Violence in Brazil (Temple U Press, 2011).
Of course, that's also true in Mexico and other countries. But "given the extensive consumer experience with using armor in Brazil and its association with the wealthy, the middle class there is more likely" to buy it "to make a statement, much like a middle-class individual in the U.S. buying a Porsche," adds Ram Mudambi.
In fact street violence against drivers seems "much more" common in Sao Paolo, Brazil's largest city, than in Mexico or elsewhere, adds Masaaki Kotabe, who was issued a chauferre and an armed Ford Versailles on a stint working for Philips do Brasil in the 1990s.
I asked the folks at Temple University's criminology studies group about this. "The upper middle class" in Brazilian cities "have lived thorugh several cycles of kidnapping and carjacking in which stors of the police have often participated... They mistrust the plice," so "bulletproofing cars has become a popular option," and "DuPont's armored kit was quickly accepted" when it rolled out in 2008 because it's half the cost of rival packages, and weighs less," writes Temple's Philip N. Evanson, co-author of Living in the Crossfire: Favela Residents, Drug Dealers and Police Violence in Brazil (Temple U Press, 2011).
Of course, that's also true in Mexico and other countries. But "given the extensive consumer experience with using armor in Brazil and its association with the wealthy, the middle class there is more likely" to buy it "to make a statement, much like a middle-class individual in the U.S. buying a Porsche," adds Ram Mudambi.
In fact street violence against drivers seems "much more" common in Sao Paolo, Brazil's largest city, than in Mexico or elsewhere, adds Masaaki Kotabe, who was issued a chauferre and an armed Ford Versailles on a stint working for Philips do Brasil in the 1990s.