Palten Diesel

Extra information

 

Best regards from VW
 
The story of one of the worlds most successful transport vehicle began with the start of the production of the Type 2 at the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg on March 8th, 1950. The delivery van was very popular, not only in Germany, also in Austria. This gave government agencies, the institute AVL List and the Palten-Stahlindustrie GmbH the idea of offering an own, similar small van.

 

The company Palten-Stahlindustrie GmbH, located in Rottenmann (Styria) had absolutely no experience in the field of automotive construction and production. As a support, the back-then latest VW T2 was bought and examined very carefully. But the thorough check of the van did not led to own knowledge, which in turn would have implied an own development. Rather the VW T2 was more or less copied. The result was a van that shared many common characteristics with the Volkswagen van. The only area, which got a personal note by the Austrians, was the front area. In contrast to the German model the Austrian van had an utterly even front, without the big, striking V-shaped ribbing. Only the two flush-mounted, high-positioned front lights and the embossed lettering “Palten-Diesel” were in contrast to the rest of the front end. Also differing from the VW example the semicircular windscreen had no division bar, but was built as one part. Production of some experimental vehicles took place at the German body maker Westfalia. Besides the transporter version it was also planned to offer a pick-up and a bus version. All three versions should share the same chassis and a 2-cylinder V-diesel-engine with 1.020 cc and 20 hp. 

 

In 1954 in total 5 copies were set on wheels. They were used at several exhibitions to attract customers. In the end an agreement with the Spanish company FADISA was made and 2.000 copies were produced for the Iberian market in 1956.