Strange But True: Trabant Coming Back

Sometimes, things are just too crazy not to cover - Trabant coming back is one of those things. Before the Frankfurt Auto Show there was speculation about an electric Trabant concept being displayed at the show. That rumors proved to be correct, and thankfully it looks a lot different (read: better) than the rendering of it that was floating around then.

Retro "inspired" designs are the "in" thing right now - you know that companies are going to great lengths to draw on history when someone wants to revive Trabant. The crazy thing is, it is not just a startup car company that  hasformed out of nowhere.

It's actually being built by a German die-cast toy carmaker in partnership with IndiKar, a German auto parts-maker. Yes, you did read that right. That toy company is Herpa Miniaturmodelle, which makes a miniature Trabant model and secured rights to the Trabant name in 2007.

The two companies have been working on the project for the past two years (presumably after securing the name) and IndiKar CEO Ronald Gerschewski says "We are past the vision– we are in the implementation phase," working to secure investors for a 2012 production run. The Trabant nT would have a range of about 155 miles, costing $29,000.

It actually looks kind of cool, and you can tell right what it is aiming at - why the highly-successful MINI, of course. Will it make it to production? Who knows. The real interesting story will be seeing reaction from the German car buying public to a vehicle named Trabant.