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BMW F76, the delivery vehicle from BMW

BMW makes delivery vehicles? But let’s see, isn’t the Bavarian company known the world over for making sports cars? Well, yes, but at one point in its history, due to the company’s economic needs, it also produced a small delivery vehicle. This is the F76, and this is its story.

The BMW F 76 was a small tricycle van that BMW built between 1932 and 1933 at its Eisenach site, because during the global economic crisis of the 1920s and 1930s, there was a need in society for simple, inexpensive vehicles that could perform urban transport tasks at low cost and could be driven without a licence. BMW was already producing the BMW 3/15 van, of which it had sold only 435 vehicles between May 1929 and February 1932, and the success of other manufacturers with three-wheeled cars led BMW to produce the BMW F76, a small tricycle van with two side-by-side seats, using engines from the single-cylinder motorbikes it already produced, from 1931 onwards. A single-seat variant was also tested, but was not included in the final production run, as well as a version as a passenger car.

Sales

The BMW plant in Eisenach produced from autumn 1932 the F 76 with a 200 cc engine capacity at a price of 1,350 Reichsmarks, followed in January 1933 by the BMW F79 with a 400 cc engine, which was sold for 1,500 Reichsmark. The basic price included only a horn and a speedometer. The windscreen, windscreen wiper, cab, doors, electric indicator, spare wheel, spare wheel holder and jack were not standard and came as extras, as did all the load versions.

After producing only 600 examples, 250 of the F76 version and 350 of the F79 version, production ceased due to a lack of customer interest, as Germany was already emerging from the crisis when they went on the road.

Technology

The engines were single-cylinder, four-stroke, motorbike engines, largely from the BMW R 2 and R 4 with minor gears, and were fitted with a three-speed gearbox with reverse gear.

Fortunately, BMW refocused in the following years on producing other types of vehicles, such as the BMW 328, and managed to become what it is today, a manufacturer of luxury and sports cars. A good thing, although, of course, it’s also true to think that the delivery man in your neighbourhood brings you your order in a BMW…

 

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