NSU

Year of foundation 1873-1977

NSU Motorenwerke AG, known simply as NSU, was one of the most important German automobile and motorcycle manufacturers of the 20th century, with a history dating back to the second half of the 19th century. The company was founded in 1873 in Riedlingen, Germany, by Christian Schmidt as a machine shop for knitting machines. Shortly thereafter, it moved to Neckarsulm, the city from which the acronym NSU derives. At the end of the 19th century, the company gradually abandoned textile production to focus first on bicycles and then on motorcycles, anticipating its future shift towards the motor industry.

NSU began building automobiles in the early 20th century, distinguishing itself for its innovation and quality. Automobile production grew rapidly, but competition and costs led to difficulties, so much so that in 1929, the automobile division was sold to Fiat, which continued to produce vehicles in Neckarsulm for years under the NSU-Fiat brand. The company remained heavily involved in the motorcycle industry, becoming one of the world's largest motorcycle manufacturers between the 1930s and 1950s. NSU models were renowned for their robustness and efficiency, and numerous speed records were set with these two-wheelers, consolidating the brand's international prestige.

In the 1950s, NSU returned to the automotive sector, introducing compact and innovative vehicles such as the Prinz, which enjoyed great success in Germany and abroad. The real technological leap came in the 1960s with the development of the Wankel rotary engine, of which NSU was a global pioneer. The company launched cutting-edge models such as the NSU Spider (the world's first car with a Wankel engine) and, most notably, the 1967 NSU Ro 80, a futuristic sedan that won the Car of the Year award thanks to its cutting-edge styling and technical solutions. However, the complexity and still limited reliability of the Wankel engine caused serious financial problems, weighing heavily on the company's balance sheet.

In 1969, NSU merged with Audi, which in turn was part of the Volkswagen Group. This marked the end of the brand's independence: production of NSU models was gradually discontinued in the early 1970s, while the Neckarsulm plant was fully integrated into Audi, becoming one of the group's most important sites. Since then, the NSU name disappeared from automobiles, but its legacy lives on in technical innovation, the history of motorcycling, and its influence on the modern Audi.

Today, the NSU brand still belongs to Volkswagen and is no longer used commercially, but its memory is celebrated by collectors, enthusiasts, and museums. The historic motorcycles, the Prinz, and the visionary Ro 80 are considered icons of a company that, with courage and ingenuity, wrote decisive chapters in the evolution of the automobile and motorcycle.