Comotor

Wankel motor

The Company Comotor SA was a joint venture between NSU and Citroën, created in Luxembourg in April 1967. Its goal was to produce Wankel engines. It followed an earlier, 1964 joint venture of both companies, the Geneva-based Comobil subsidiary, focusing on the development of the engines. Comotor engines were used by the NSU Ro 80, Citroën M35 and by the GS Birotor.

The venture was hamstrung by technical, reliability, and fuel consumption issues. Although Citroën took a slow and calculated development path, including a two-year 'beta-program' in which 267 Citroën M35 prototypes were tested exhaustively by selected customers, rising gas prices in 1973 nullified market demand for the fuel-thirsty engine. The vast sums that where invested in the Comobil and Comotor joint ventures were major contributors to the bankruptcy of both NSU and Citroën.

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