Hanomag 1.3 Litre History

Introduced in 1939, the 1.3 Litre was Hanomag's most modern passenger car: a streamlined two-door saloon with a fully unitary (monocoque) body structure — an innovative feature at the time for a mass-market German car. The 1.3-litre overhead-valve four-cylinder engine produced 32 PS at 3,600 rpm.

The 1.3 Litre's unitary body construction attracted the attention of Volvo engineers who purchased an example to study how such a compact car should be built. The 1939 Hanomag directly influenced the Volvo PV444 (launched 1947), which was Volvo's own first unibody car. The 1.3 Litre is preserved at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

Production was cut short by World War II — 9,187 examples were built before the war-related shutdown in 1941, after which Hanomag's manufacturing capacity shifted to military vehicles, most notably the Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track, of which over 15,000 were built. Although postwar car prototypes were reportedly made, Hanomag never returned to passenger-car production.