Blitzkarren

The Blitzkarren (German transl. lightning cart) was a cab-less tricycle freight cart based on a motorcycle. It was produced in 1924 as the first complete production vehicle manufactured by the Bremer Kühlerfabrik Borgward & Co. GmbH.[1] The company, located in Sebaldsbrück, a settlement in Hemelingen, Bremen, Germany previously produced radiators and fenders for Hansa-Lloyd. Between 1929 and 1931 Hansa-Lloyd was acquired by Carl Borgward and his co-investor Wilhelm Tecklenborg.[2][3] Borgward also renamed his radiator manufacturing company to Goliath-Werke Borgward & Co. GmbH.[4]

In 1924, responding to a designer complaining about the material transport for radiator production between the workshops by handcart, Borgward constructed this light truck.[5] In difficult economic times before the Great Depression Borgward discovered a gap in the market. There was a great demand from traders and small business owners for affordable motorized freight carts,[6] that were legal to drive without a license.[7] A Blitzkarren cost 980 Reichsmark.[8] In 1929, a quarter of the licensed commercial vehicles were made in Bremen.[9] Carl Borgward had patented the Blitzkarren division. The patents were granted on June 20, 1925 in Germany, and on March 11, 1926 in England.[10] Previously there had been similar tricycles used as passenger transporters, usually single-seater.

Blitzkarren had neither clutch nor starter. The two-stroke motorcycle engine, under the flatbed, was coupled over a V-belt on the left rear wheel and was pushed to start, and choked to stop,[11] which was not difficult from the driver seat in the rear of a 250 kg payload vehicle on a flat road. The single front wheel was mounted in a motorcycle fork, which was controlled from the rear.