HQM Sachsenring GmbH

HQM Sachsenring GmbH

Company type	Private
Industry	Automotive
Founded	1957; 67 years ago (1957)
Headquarters	Zwickau, Germany
Products	Automobiles
Number of employees	300
Website	HQM Homepage

HQM Sachsenring GmbH is a Zwickau-based company that supplies chassis and body parts to the automotive industry. The company was named after the Sachsenring race track. Founded as VEB Sachsenring after the end of World War II, Sachsenring was one of the few manufacturers of vehicles in East Germany, its best known product being the Trabant, produced between 1957 and 1991.^[1] Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, Sachsenring transitioned from a government-owned company under a centrally-planned economy to a private corporation in a free market economy.

After three years in bankruptcy, Sachsenring AG was purchased in February, 2006 by Härterei und Qualitätsmanagement GmbH (HQM) of Leipzig. Formerly the dominant major automaker in East Germany, Sachsenring has since departed from making motor vehicles. Today, it supplies, among other things, the Volkswagen factory with parts for the Golf and Passat models.

Models

Supermini

• AWZ P70 Zwickau (1955–1959)
• Trabant P50 (1957–1962)
• Trabant 600 (1962–1965)
• Trabant 601 (1964–1990)
• Trabant 1.1 (1990–1991)
• Sachsenring UNI 1 (prototype, 1996)

Luxury vehicle

• Sachsenring P240 (1954–1959)
• Sachsenring P240 Repräsentant (1969)

Trucks

• IFA H3A (1957–1958)
• IFA S4000 (1959–1960)

Cultural impact

The German bitpop pioneers Welle:Erdball have been using a rotated version of the Sachsenring emblem as their band logo since 1996.

Gallery

• 
  1983 Trabant 601L
• 
  AWZ P70 Zwickau
• 
  1957 Sachsenring P240
• 
  1969 P240 Repräsentant
• 
  Trabant 1.1
• 
  IFA S4000

References

External links

• HQM official site (German)
• Official Site of August Horch Museum Zwickau
• UK-based official Wartburg, Trabant and IFA owners' club

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sachsenring vehicles.