Editing Trabant (section)

=== Full production ===
[[File:Trabant P50.jpg|thumb|alt=Two-door sedan, with a driver at the wheel|A 1959 P50]]
The first of the Trabants left the VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau factory in Saxony on 7 November 1957. It was a relatively advanced car when it was formally introduced the following year, with [[front wheel drive]], [[unitary construction]] and independent suspension. The Trabant's greatest shortcoming was its engine. By the late 1950s, many small West European cars (such as the [[Renault]]) had cleaner, more-efficient [[four-stroke]] engines, but budgetary constraints and raw-materials shortages mandated an outdated (but inexpensive) two-stroke engine in the Trabant. It was technically equivalent to the West German [[North German Automobile and Engine|Lloyd]] automobile, a similarly sized car with an air-cooled, two-cylinder four-stroke engine. The Trabant had a front, [[Transverse engine|transversely mounted]] engine and [[front-wheel drive]] in an era when many European cars were using rear-mounted engines or front-mounted engines with rear-wheel drive. Its greatest drawback was its largely unchanged production; the car's two-stroke engine made it obsolete by the 1970s, limiting exports to Western Europe.

The Trabant's air-cooled, {{convert|500|cc|cid|abbr=on|adj=on}} engine—upgraded to {{convert|600|cc|cid|abbr=on|adj=on}} in 1962–63—was derived from a pre-war [[DKW]] design with minor alterations during its production run. The first [[Saab Automobile|Saab]] car had a larger (764 cc), water-cooled, two-cylinder two-stroke engine. [[Wartburg (marque)|Wartburg]], an East German manufacturer of larger sedans, also used a water-cooled, three-cylinder, {{convert|1000|cc|cid|lk=on|abbr=on|adj=on}}, two-stroke DKW engine.

The original Trabant, introduced in 1958, was the [[Trabant P 50|P 50]]. Trabant's base model, it shared a large number of interchangeable parts with the latest 1.1s. The 500&nbsp;cc, {{convert|17|PS|kW|0|abbr=on}} P50 evolved into a {{convert|20|PS|kW|0|abbr=on}} version with a fully synchronised gearbox in 1960, and received a {{cvt|23|PS}}, {{convert|600|cc|cid|abbr=on}} engine in 1962 as the P 60.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0503-0015-001, Sachsenring Trabant 601.jpg|thumb|alt=Trabant with brown trim in a museum|A 1963 Trabant 601]]

The updated P601 was introduced in 1964. It was essentially a facelift of the P 60, with a different front fascia, bonnet, roof and rear and the original P50 underpinnings. The model remained nearly unchanged until the end of its production except for the addition of 12V electricity, rear coil springs and an updated dashboard for later models.

[[File:Trabant P1100 front 20040924.jpg|thumb|alt=A blue Trabant|P1100 prototype]]
The Trabant's designers expected production to extend until 1967 at the latest, and East German designers and engineers created a series of more-sophisticated prototypes intended to replace the P601; several are displayed at the [[Dresden Transport Museum]]. Each proposal for a new model was rejected by the East German government due to shortages of the raw materials required in larger quantities for the more-advanced designs. As a result, the Trabant remained largely unchanged for more than a quarter-century. Also unchanged was its production method, which was extremely labour-intensive.

Production started from 34,000 p.a. in 1964, reached 100,000 p.a. in 1973, to a high of 150,000 in 1989.<ref name=":2" />

The Trabant 1.1 was a 601 with a better-performing 1.05-litre ({{convert|1050|cc|cid|abbr=on|disp=out}}), {{cvt|45|PS}} [[VW Polo]] engine. With a slightly modified look (including a floor-mounted gearshift), it was quieter and cleaner than its predecessor. The 1.1 had front disc brakes, and its wheel assembly was borrowed from [[Volkswagen]]. It was produced from 1989 to 1991, in parallel with the two-stroke P601. Except for the engine and transmission, many parts from older P50s, P60s and 601s were compatible with the 1.1.