Grade Automobilwerke
Grade was an automobile manufacturer, the (now Borkheide ) in Brandenburg produced in the 1920s in Bork ( colony) small car.
History
In 1921, the grade automotive Werke AG was established by the aircraft designer Hans Grade for the production of small cars - Provisions of the Treaty of Versailles prohibited after the First World War, any aircraft manufacturing activities in Germany, so that many aircraft manufacturers to neighboring areas went as the vehicle.
In the same year the company presented at the Berlin Motor Show in front of an open two-seater. It was powered by a single cylinder two- stroke engine with 887 cc displacement, which developed 12 hp.
The following year was this vehicle, but with a different two-cylinder engine of 808 cc, custom-made small car as Grade 4/16 HP, occasionally Grade F2 in series. It was without a chassis, so self-supporting construction. The drive concept with two-cylinder engine, friction gear and belt drive to the rear axle, which therefore did without differential, and the consistent use of lightweight construction principle move the Grade 4/16 PS near the cyclecars, though he was rather big for that. 1924 was even in Germany 's best-selling small car of this type.
But when Opel and Hanomag brought their small cars on the market, the lightweight vehicle with a boat-shaped structure had no chance.
Also a four-seater newer model and the four-cylinder with 980 cc grade F4 could not prevail. A failed 1925 made reorganization as Grade Automobil AG and after about 2000 vehicles built the company went bankrupt in late 1927. The production may already ended 1926.