Hotzenblitz (Austria, Germany)

Hotzenblitz was a small German electric city car developed by Hotzenblitz-Mobile GmbH & Co. KG in Ibach and produced under contract at the Simson works in Suhl from 1993 to 1996. The two-seat microcar (with an occasional rear bench) used a tubular steel frame with an aluminum sandwich floor and GRP bodywork, powered by an AC induction motor rated at 12 kW (16.5 kW peak). Standard lead-gel traction batteries (14×12 V, about 10 kWh) yielded roughly 70 km real-world range and about 100 km/h top speed. It was sold as the open Buggy (zip-in doors) or the City with fixed doors and hardtop. Around 140–150 were completed.

Proprietary rights were transferred in December 1995 to HBZ Hotzenblitz-Mobile GmbH & Co. Produktionsgesellschaft KG; production ended in 1996 amid insolvency. In the 2000s the successor initiative Treffpunkt Zukunft promoted revivals and an updated E-Mo concept, while independent projects demonstrated modern battery and fuel-cell conversions. No renewed series production followed. The Hotzenblitz remained historically significant as the first passenger car in the Federal Republic of Germany to be designed, series-built and sold solely as an electric vehicle until the BMW i3 era.