Word: germanize
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...global rush into green technology could be setting the stage for a most unusual comeback: the foul-smelling Trabant, the oft-ridiculed symbol of communist East Germany, all but disappeared from German roadways after the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago. But now its makers are planning to introduce a climate-saving electric version of the Trabi, as it was affectionately known...
...rise after World War II. But the Trabi was more a mockery. It had a plastic body and was driven by a two-stroke engine that ran on a cocktail of oil and gasoline that emitted a putrid stench as it rolled with a characteristic clackety-clack along East German roads. (Read about the Beetle in TIME's most important cars of all time...
Herpa makes the German equivalent of Matchbox cars, scale models of real cars that can fit snugly in the hands of small children. It bought the rights to the Trabi name years ago and makes a line of Trabis for tiny tots. Now, Herpa wants to market a new Trabi as a retro designer item for a green, fashion-conscious clientele. It plans to unveil a prototype next month at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt. (See the best cars from the 2009 Detroit Auto Show...
Just a p.r. gag or does a new electro-Trabi have a chance of rising from the cold ashes of history to rule the roads in Germany? That remains to be seen. But the dream of an electric autobahn is clearly taking hold in Germany. The German government last week unveiled a "national development plan" to put a million electric cars on the road by 2020, pledging to provide $715 million from the country's economic stimulus package toward funding for research and development. Part of the plan involves developing a network of electric filling stations along German roads, with...
...goal is to make Germany the leading market for electro-mobility," Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told reporters in Berlin as he unveiled the plan. (Read "German Court Upholds Ban on Extra-Long Names...