NSU models

NSU was a German vehicle maker founded in 1873 by Christian Schmidt in Riedlingen as a maker of knitting machines. In 1880 the company moved to Neckarsulm. It began making bicycles in 1886, its first motorcycle in 1901 and its first car in 1905, and by 1955 it was the world's largest motorcycle producer.

NSU returned to cars in 1957 with the small rear-engined Prinz. It then became a pioneer of the Wankel rotary engine: the NSU Wankel Spider of 1964 was the world's first car with such an engine. In 1967 came the NSU Ro 80, a Wankel-engined saloon that won design awards and a car of the year title. In 1969 Volkswagen took over NSU and merged it with Auto Union to form Audi NSU Auto Union AG. The last Ro 80 was sold in April 1977, which marked the end of the NSU brand. See also Audi. Read more: the history of Audi.