A famous scooter model of the 1950s with a resounding name and a feeling of dolce vita is "the Lambretta". Not an NSU invention - rather a licensed production based on the design of the Italian manufacturer Innocenti, which sold licenses to various manufacturers in different countries at the time. How NSU brought the Lambretta onto German roads in 1950 is reported here.
Neckarsulm in 1950: Concern is spreading at the NSU plant and several hundred employees are threatened with redundancy. From the middle of the year, repairs for vehicles of the US Army stationed in Germany will no longer be carried out. The NSU management is feverishly looking for ways to utilize the plant's capacity - and fortunately is quickly successful: scooters are becoming fashionable in Germany and NSU is banking on this trend. The Neckarsulm-based company signs a license agreement with Innocenti and has been building the NSU Lambretta since 1950. Its name still contains a reference to its origins, as the company headquarters of the Italian licensor is located in the Milan suburb of Lambrate.
During the Lambretta's production period, NSU launched two versions on the market: until 1954, a scooter with a displacement of 123 cubic centimetres and a top speed of 70 kilometers per hour, followed from 1954 by the 150 cubic centimetre version with a maximum speed of 81 kilometers per hour. The smaller version had an output of 4.5 hp, while the more powerful Lambretta had 6.2 hp. Both versions were powered by a single-cylinder two-stroke engine.
Around 117,000 of both model variants were built between 1950 and 1956. The scooters were available in four colors: lime green, beige, medium grey and light grey.
When the license agreement with Innocenti expired on schedule in 1956, NSU decided to continue producing scooters - now as an in-house development that could also be sold in other markets: The Lambretta becomes the NSU Prima, which is available in four variants. By 1964, scooter production in Neckarsulm had ended and a total of 160,000 Prima models had been manufactured. This marks the end of scooter production in Neckarsulm.
