NSU-Fiat was a German
automobile
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
manufacturer which produced
Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
vehicles under license at a plant acquired from NSU in
Heilbronn
Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state.
From the late Mid ...
from 1929 to 1957.
In 1957, following a complicated litigation process over the right to use the by now increasingly high profile "NSU" name on passenger cars, the name used for the Fiat-designed cars was changed to Neckar, and with this name the company continued to produce Fiats in Germany until 1971.
History
NSU Motorenwerke (subsequently NSU Werke) AG sold its then recently completed
Heilbronn
Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state.
From the late Mid ...
car factory (near the river
Neckar
The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis near Schwenn ...
) in 1929 to
Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
for one Million Marks, following financial problems resulting from the
economic crisis
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the p ...
. The deal resulted from an initiative by NSU's bankers,
Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank AG was a German bank and was based in Frankfurt. It was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in May 2009.
History
19th century
The Dresdner Bank was established on 12 Novemb ...
.
[
]
Two separate NSU businesses
The 1929 deal left two businesses producing petrol driven vehicles with similar names located barely 7 kilometers (4 miles) apart: the two were frequently confused with one other. "NSU Automobil-AG" was a subsidiary of Fiat, manufacturing Fiat passenger cars carrying a "NSU-Fiat" badge and located in Heilbronn
Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state.
From the late Mid ...
, while NSU Werke AG in nearby Neckarsulm
Neckarsulm () is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, near Heilbronn, and part of the district of Heilbronn. , Neckarsulm had 26,800 inhabitants. The name Neckarsulm derives from the city's location where the Neckar and Sulm rivers ...
produced motor-bikes, becoming during the 1950s one of the largest motor-bike manufacturers in the world.
NSU-Fiat
Fiat's German subsidiary started to produce Fiat Topolino
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiar ...
s and Balillas models under license in the Heilbronn factory under the brand "NSU-Fiat". (The same Fiat-designed models were also produced under license in Nanterre, France by SIMCA-Fiat the cars subsequently becoming known simply as "Simcas".)
The Heilbronn plant had been built in 1926 by NSU, then a motor bike manufacturer, in order to break into the passenger car market, but the project had failed and by 1929 NSU had no ambitions to produce passenger cars, and therefore no reason to object when Fiat, having bought the plant, used it to manufacture cars badged as NSU-Fiats. In 1929 friendly collaboration between NSU and the nearby Fiat subsidiary was agreed, with NSU supplying parts for the Heilbronn built Fiat models. A year later, however, relations had cooled as Fiat preferred to supply parts to its Heilbronn factory from its own Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
plant beyond the Alps, and also used the Heilbronn site as a bridgehead to facilitate the importation to Germany of fully assembled new cars from Italy.[
]
Post war sporting success for NSU
Success by NSU Werke AG in motor-bike racing in the decade after 1945 greatly enhanced the appeal and therefore the value, especially in Germany, of the "NSU" name. With the "NSU" name more frequently in the public eye, confusion between "NSU-Fiat" and "NSU Werke" became more frequent among the general public which also affected business professionals with whom the businesses had dealings. The 1950s found NSU Werke's General Director, Dr. von Heydekampf, complaining that customers were being deceived ("''grobe Kundentäuschung''") because Fiat Germany were using the NSU-Fiat name to exploit the glory of the racing successes and speed records of the NSU motorbikes.[
]
Re-entry into automobiles
In 1955 it was reported that the motorbike manufacturer NSU Werke were planning to produce a passenger car in the "approximately 400cc" class and proposed to badge the little car simply as an "NSU". This seemed likely to create even more confusion in the market place affecting Fiat's smaller "NSU-Fiat"s based on the Fiat 600
The Fiat 600 ( it, Seicento, ) is a rear-engine, water-cooled city car, manufactured and marketed by Fiat Automobiles, Fiat from 1955 to 1969 — offered in two-door fastback sedan and four-door Multipla mini MPV body styles.
Measuring only ...
, already produced in Turin since 1955 and scheduled for imminent launch as a Heilbronn produced model (with the still smaller Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 ( it, Cinquecento, ) is a rear-engined, four-seat, small city car that was manufactured and marketed by Fiat Automobiles from 1957 until 1975 over a single generation in two-door saloon and two-door station wagon bodystyles.
Launc ...
already in the development pipeline).[ The Heilbronn built Fiat 600 was duly launched in 1956, but because of the dispute it was badged not as an NSU-Fiat but as the "Jagst" (shortly thereafter lengthened to "Neckar-Jagst") while one class up, the new Heilbronn built ]Fiat 1100
The Fiat 1100 is a small family car produced from 1953 until 1969 by the Italian manufacturer Fiat. It was an all-new unibody replacement for the Fiat 1100 E, which descended from the pre-war, body-on-frame Fiat 508 C Balilla 1100. The 1100 was ...
also introduced in 1956 was advertised as the "Neckar".[ The NSU offering, when it appeared on the market in 1958 as the ]NSU Prinz The NSU Prinz (Prince) is an automobile which was produced in West Germany by the NSU Motorenwerke AG from 1958 to 1973.
NSU Prinz I, II & III
The first post-war NSU car, the Prinz I, was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1957 a ...
would indeed compete in the same market segment as the baby Fiats.
NSU brand dispute
Acrimony had mounted, involving robust exchanges of lawyers' letters, and legal hearings ensued. Arguments centred on what had been agreed about rights to the "NSU" name and, in particular, whether an arguably informal letter dated 5 January 1929 on the subject had long-standing contractual force.[ The judge decided that the 1929 letter could not have the contractual force necessary to bind the parties over use of the "NSU" name, because of a danger that its effect, if valid, would be to damage marketplace competition and thereby run counter to the public interest.][ The Fiat licensee therefore felt obliged, in 1957, to rebrand all its Heilbronn assembled cars: NSU-Fiat badged cars became Neckars.
]
Fiat-designed models branded as Neckars
Neckar was in the late 1950s producing fewer than 25,000 vehicles a year, Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 ( it, Cinquecento, ) is a rear-engined, four-seat, small city car that was manufactured and marketed by Fiat Automobiles from 1957 until 1975 over a single generation in two-door saloon and two-door station wagon bodystyles.
Launc ...
(Neckar Weinsberg), 600
__NOTOC__
600 ( DC) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 600 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the ...
(Neckar Jagst) and 1100 (Neckar Europa) slightly modified, often more luxurious and sporty than the Fiats produced in Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
.
The launch of the Fiat 1500 in 1961 and of the Neckar Panorama (derived from the Autobianchi Bianchina Panoramica
Autobianchi () was an Italian automobile manufacturer, created jointly by Bianchi (bicycle manufacturer), Bianchi, Pirelli and Fiat in 1955. Autobianchi produced only a handful of models during its lifetime, which were almost exclusively small cars ...
) allowed Neckar to reach a yearly production of 50,000 units in 1962. A coupé derived from the 1500 and called the Neckar Mistral was designed. A coupé and a convertible based on the Fiat 600 were produced as the Neckar Riviera. The Fiat 850
The Fiat 850 (''Tipo 100G'') is a small rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive car manufactured and marketed by Italian car manufacturer Fiat from 1964 to 1973.
History Overview
Its technical design was an evolution of the successful Fiat 600. The interna ...
(as the Neckar Adria) was the last model produced by Neckar.
Closure
The high cost of the German workforce, supported by German government determination to sustain what some thought was a high value for the Deutsche Mark
The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...
, doomed Neckar. Fiat refused to sell the license of the new Fiat 124
The Fiat 124 is a small family car manufactured and marketed by Italian company Fiat between 1966 and 1974. The saloon superseded the Fiat 1300 and was the basis for several variants including a station wagon, a four-seater coupé ( 124 Sport Cou ...
, 125 and 128 to Neckar. Production of Neckar slowed down from 1963. 50,000 cars were produced in 1962, down to 44,000 units in 1963, 22,000 in 1964, 18,000 in 1967 and 12,000 in 1970. Neckar closed in 1971 having produced 370,000 cars in total.
Models
Bibliography
* Werner Oswald: Deutsche Autos Band 2 - 1920-1945. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, .
* Werner Oswald: Deutsche Autos 1945−1990, Band 4, 1. Auflage, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2001,
See also
* List of automobile manufacturers
This is a list of notable automobile manufacturers with articles on Wikipedia by country. It includes companies that are in business as well as defunct manufacturers. Only companies that have articles here are included.
A
Algeria
* SNVI
...
* Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
* NSU
* Audi
Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide.
Th ...
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neckar (Car)
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Germany
Fiat
NSU Motorenwerke