AHC: Save the Trabant

[marathag]

Ok so we have a family car with a light weight plastic body? Sounds like a good starting place for an electric car.

It really wasn't that light weight for its size. The steel unibody was thinner that it should have been, so a little more flexy than desired, and Duroplast panels still as heavy as steel. They were far thicker, and there was no recycling, unless you call incineration recycling for those panels. Its 25% weaker than fiberglass, but 20% stronger than Polyphenylene with Nylon 66, that I think is what Saturn used(they wanted more flexibility)

 

[WILDGEESE]

How about if the Trabant was developed then made in OTL until the 1960's

Then instead of the 601 being developed and put into production they instead license produce the DAF 33

Then switch over to the DAFF 66 in the 1970's

Could they have produced it with a plastic body?

Then as in DAF cars in the Netherlands they get bought out by Volvo and they invest in the factory post 1990.

Badge engineered Volvo's are then built and sold in Germany as 'Trabant' and are slowly developed into a stand alone brand similar to how SEAT & SKODA were under VW ownership

Regards filers

 

[marathag]

Another way might be that would to get the Wartburg 1L three cylinder two stroke engine for the Trabant. That was around 53 HP, so quite the improvement.

 

[Cryhavoc101]

It reinvents itself becomes an early cheap electric car or hybrid car. Becomes very popular in cities where congestion charges are introduced and where its relative short range and low speed are not a handicap.

 

[Cryhavoc101]

How about if the Trabant was developed then made in OTL until the 1960's

Then instead of the 601 being developed and put into production they instead license produce the DAF 33

View attachment 519534

Then switch over to the DAFF 66 in the 1970's

View attachment 519535

Could they have produced it with a plastic body?

Then as in DAF cars in the Netherlands they get bought out by Volvo and they invest in the factory post 1990.

Badge engineered Volvo's are then built and sold in Germany as 'Trabant' and are slowly developed into a stand alone brand similar to how SEAT & SKODA were under VW ownership

Regards filers

Ah DAF 33. My dad had one of those. Who remembers the DAF 33 races....in reverse! 😱

 

[WILDGEESE]

Ah DAF 33. My dad had one of those. Who remembers the DAF 33 races....in reverse! 😱

Memory might be going, but I think I watched something like that in the UK on ITV's "World Of Sport"

I remember the an old couple in the next street having a late W-reg model Volvo 66 in Chocolate colour in the 1980's.

Should be worth a few bob as they kept it in good condition.

 

[WILDGEESE]

Here's another idea.

How about East Germany license producing the Reliant Rebel in the 1960's to the mid 70's

Then from the mid 70' they license build the Reliant Kitten

Both vehicles based on the three wheeled Reliant Regal & Robin models . . . and the bodies made from reinforced plastic?

Regards filers

 

[chankljp]

Maybe if the GDR exports the entire technology and builds a trabant factory in North Korea or Cuba where it runs until the present day.

Something that I observed about cars in the country while I visited North Korea a few years ago:

Instead of being like Cuba with lots of old vintage cars on the road, outside of old military transports and cargo trucks, all the vehicles that I have seen being driven in the DPRK were not only brand new, but are in fact really high-end models.

The reason for this was simply: The country suffers from a chronic shortage of oil. Meaning that anyone that is high-ranking or important enough to even entertain the idea of having a private car could afford to go for a nice, fancy, modern imported one. With there being no such thing as a ‘low-end family car’.

Hence, even if North Korea had purchased the production license for the Trabant from East Germany, I really don’t think that they would have been kept in production, since they simply don’t have the oil to keep all those extra cars running.

 

[AspieMan]

one of he coolest cars ive ever seen was a powder-blue Trabant built for drag racing.

 

[Uruk]

Just introduce the Trabant 1.1 earlier and create an export market

 

[Lautréamont]

VEB certainly knew how to design good looking cars in the 1950s and developing a more modern look in the 1970s for the 80s was not beyond them.

Sachsenring. "VEB" is a qualifier, basically the Communist German counterpart to "LLC".

 

[HBsennah94]

The GDR car manufacturers actually constantly tried to come up with newer models, very good and modern ones, in fact; but were told by the politicos to keep building the old models. There was a very interesting documentary about that a few years ago (in german, unfortunately), but I can't seem to be able to locate it now. Just have the POD shut up the politicos and give the R&D the autonomy it needed.

 

[Deerwrecker2015]

For the Trabant to have any possible chance to remain in production beyond 1991 would require the following for example.

1. - The Trabant would need to be completely redesigned from the ground up to be competitive against the competing models from Volkswagen, Ford, Opel, Fiat, Hyundai, Renault, Citroen, Peugeot and the Japanese automakers for example all of which offered designs which were more modern and advanced than the corresponding vehicles that the Warsaw Pact nations were building and offering.

It is true that attempts were made to replace the Trabant with a more modern design over the years (The East German automakers also attempted to develop and bring more modern vehicles into production) but the East German government rejected every proposal due to the lack of raw materials that would be needed for the more advanced designs and as a result the vehicles became more outdated as the years had passed.

2. - The production facilities would need to completely rebuilt from the ground up. The major problem that the Trabant had also ran into was that the production line facilities had been completely inefficient and too labor-intensive which ended up depending on government subsidies just to survive. In post reunification Germany the inefficient production line was completely unprofitable. The only foreseeable problem would be the reduction of the number of workers needed to assemble any such vehicles on a production line that is as efficient as the western automakers.

 

[Blorg]

perhaps they are privatized or are sold to a private company. Change the build a bit and, boom export it to the third and second world en mass.

 

[Deerwrecker2015]

perhaps they are privatized or are sold to a private company. Change the build a bit and, boom export it to the third and second world en mass.

The automaker that built the Trabant did transition into a privately owned company although it no longer builds Cars and is now only a supplier of Automotive components (Mainly supplying components to Volkswagen).

A massive amount of financing would also be absolutely needed as well for the Trabant to survive (To develop the replacement model and to rebuild the production facilities).

The process that would be needed for the Trabant to survive

1. - The automaker is sold off to new ownership (Preferbally owners who have the sufficient financing necessary).
2. - Development of a new modern and advanced replacement is started.
3. - Production of the existing out of date model ceases.
4. - The production facilities get completely rebuilt from the ground up (The work needs to be started right after the final out of date Trabant rolls off the assembly line).
5. - The workers that do get retained (Likely the best and elite of the staff) are thoroughly retrained in the new assembly processes that get implemented and be trained in proper quality control.
6. - Once the new production facilities are completed immediately start gearing up production making sure that the bugs in regards to product quality and the production process get eliminated and introduce the new models to the public.
7. - After the product introduction is done and the vehicles rolling off the assembly line meet the proper quality standards the new models get shipped out and go on sale afterwards.

 

[1940LaSalle]

Easy. Strip down the cab to the bare essentials and provide a lawnmowing deck, plus a power takeoff for other attachments and there you are: a cheap second car that doubles as a lawn tractor.

 

[marathag]

Easy. Strip down the cab to the bare essentials and provide a lawnmowing deck, plus a power takeoff for other attachments and there you are: a cheap second car that doubles as a lawn tractor.

Still less horsepower than some US Lawnmowers.
That said, the Wartburg three cylinder in the Tramp/Küblewagen would have been a very usable utility vehicle