A vastly updated version of the boxy, smoky Trabant compact made in communist East Germany could be in production by 2012 as an electric powered green machine _ but only if the company finds the right investor.
A concept version of an electric Trabant, dubbed the Trabant nT, is on display at the Frankfurt Auto Show.
The nT retains the simple shape of the old version, the P 601 Universal Trabant, but will substitute its loud, two-stroke engine with a plug-in electric motor. Solar panels on the roof will power some of the car's functions.
"NT stands for new thinking, new technology and new Trabi," said Klaus Schindler, the chief executive of the Trabi nT project and also the director of Herpa Miniature Models GmbH. The company bought the rights to the vehicle, nicknamed Trabi, and came up with the idea to bring it back into modern production.
Three million Trabants were made before East Germany ceased to exist at Germany reunification in 1990 at the end of the Cold War.
Schindler said he presented a scale model at the Frankfurt Auto Show in 2007 and 94 percent of 12,000 show participants responded positively to a survey on whether to bring the car back.
"I think we hit a nerve. People love the culture, the history behind this brand and the car," Schindler said in an interview with the Associated Press Wednesday.
"The new Trabi will become a trend setter; it seems to suit a lot of people and we're getting a lot of positive feedback."
The new four-seater's lithium-ion battery will have a charging time of about eight hours and a range of 160 kilometers or 100 miles. The car will have a maximum speed of 130 kilometers per hour, or about 80 mph. The company warns it will be sparse, "with no unnecessary gadgetry," though appears to have everything one needs to drive arranged smartly.
The nT project claims the average car is driven about 50 kilometers a day (30 miles) In that case, daily charging would cost owners about ⁈bout $1.50.
"Simple, strong, light and practical _ for decades, these virtues stood for the Trabant brand," the company says.
The car "could be on the road by 2012 provided that we are able to find a strong partner. The worldwide known brand 'Trabant' now offers a strong investor the entry into an exciting automobile project with potential for the future."
Schindler said a German investor would be good but that he had "a whole row of interested partners," out of eastern and western Europe and Asia.
He said an individual or investor not involved in the auto industry would probably need a two-digit million euro sum to invest, while an existing manufacturer with production capacity already in place would need less.
He said the core founders of the project _ Herpa, Indikar, a German specialty car body builder, and Nils Poschwatta, the designer of the nT _ want to stay in the business. He said if an investor wanted a license to build a gasoline engine version of the Trabant, that would be possible too.
One thing that is still holding the market back is the cost. Schindler said the price for the car would probably be somewhere in the ⁈ to ⁈ range, ($37,000 to $51,000) because the technology _ mainly the battery _ is still very expensive. Battery prices should come down in the next few years though, he said.
Schindler also hopes electric cars will be subsidized by the German government in some form in the future.
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On the Net:
http://www.trabant-nt.de
