Einheits-PKW der Wehrmacht
As early as 1938, Hitler tasked Ferdinand Porsche to develop a better light, standardized, and sufficiently off-road capable car, using as much Volkswagen technology as possible: the VW Kübelwagen.
Early on in the process of motorizing the German military before World War II, first the Reichswehr, and then the Wehrmacht had procured militarised versions of many different makes and models of civilian passenger cars.
Therefore, the Wehrmacht's inventory of passenger cars was unsatisfactory in a number of respects when open German re-armament began in 1935.
After the Nazi takeover of power, they rapidly increased funding for the mechanisation of the military, and in 1934, launched a development program for standardized chassis.
It strove to achieve maximum cross-country mobility and extensive standardisation of parts while employing the latest innovations in automotive engineering at the design stage in order to keep the cars in production for many years to come.
The weaknesses of the programme quickly became obvious - high costs, complex production and overstrained manufacturers unable to supply sufficient numbers of vehicles to fill all the slots of the receiving military units as planned.
Enquiries with the different branches of the military revealed that the Einheits-Pkw were also flawed designs largely unfit for wartime service.
Not even the simplifications implemented on bodies and chassis in 1940 (Typ 40), without the complex four-wheel steering among others, succeeded in remedying the multitude of shortcomings.
90% of all military branches rejected the vehicle as "unfit for wartime service" in a 1942 enquiry, while the much simpler, lighter and cheaper Volkswagen Kübelwagen proved to be far superior in basically every respect.
[6] The most conspicuous change of the 1940 design simplification was the elimination of the mid-mounted spare wheels which simplified the bodywork and gave more interior space.
The heavy off-road passenger car was built by Horch in Zwickau and Ford Germany in Cologne, each using their own V8 engines.
Although it suffered from the same deficiencies initially mentioned, as well as heavy steering, it appears to have been the most successful type of the standardised off-road passenger car programme.
They originally wanted three standard chassis with two, three, and four driven axles, all with large, single wheels and off-road payload capacities of 1.5, 2.5 and four metric tons respectively.
Its full official designation became: leichter geländegängiger Lastkraftwagen, offen (light cross-country lorry, open(-cab)).
Despite a good reputation as very off-road capable, durable and reliable,[10][12] the Einheitsdiesel had a disappointing payload relative to its own empty weight of about five tons, and several other drawbacks when compared to light trucks like the standard commercial Opel Blitz models and the Borgward B 3000.
High weight and low production numbers both resulted from its complex design, and the trucks were relatively sensitive to overloading and other typical wartime abuse.
Assembled by Borgward, Büssing-NAG, Daimler-Benz, FAUN, Henschel, Krupp, Magirus, MAN, and Vomag, production was halted in 1940, after about 12,000 to 14,300 units.
