Volkswagen K70 - Postponed Launch As A Volkswagen

Postponed Launch As A Volkswagen

NSU scheduled the car's press launch for March 1969, intending to present it to the wider public at the Geneva Motor Show of that year. However, just as the car was about to be launched, well founded rumors appeared concerning the then imminent take over of cash strapped NSU by Volkswagen: even before the take over had been made public, the K70's future was threatened by management concerns that the K70 was too close in size and price to the recently launched Audi 100. Plans for the K70 launch were at the last minute deferred, with rumors that Volkswagen personnel removed the K70 from NSU's show stand on the eve of the show. Rumours of the 'merger' reflected a reality endorsed at a special NSU shareholders' meeting that took place on 26 April 1969 and which backed the arrangement whereby NSU took over Auto Union in return for an increase in the NSU share capital issued to Volkswagen. The reality was a take over of NSU by Volkswagen, and during 1969 the Neckarsulm company was integrated with Auto Union, which Volkswagen had acquired from Daimler Benz in 1964 - in turn creating the basis of the modern day Audi company which has evolved to the present day.

VW was nevertheless in desperate need of a new family sedan to replace the commercially unsuccessful Type 4, which itself had been intended as a move upmarket for the Type 1-based cars. Thinking that the K70, featuring front wheel drive and modern styling, was the perfect way to transform its image, the Wolfsburg firm quickly scrapped publicity material showing the K70 badged as an NSU, and just over a year later the sedan instead went into production not at Neckarsulm, but at Volkswagen's new Salzgitter plant. Now branded as a Volkswagen, the K70 finally started coming of the production line with little fanfare in August 1970, and was launched in export markets during the ensuing months. A launch date for the wagon / estate version, already delayed, was further deferred - indefinitely as it turned out.