Le.gl. Einheitz-Pkw Kfz.1 Soft Top. WWII German Light Personnel Car

ICM 1:35

Einheits-Pkw der Wehrmacht – literally: "standard passenger motor-car of the Wehrmacht" – was Nazi Germany's plan for a new, multi-purpose fleet of all wheel driveoff-road vehicles, based on just three uniform chassis, specifically designed and built for the Wehrmacht (the Nazi military). The plan was formulated in 1934, and vehicles were built from 1936 to 1943.

The whole program yielded some 60,000 four-wheel drive,
off-road capable passenger cars, totaled across three weight-classes,
plus about 13,000 6x6 trucks of 2.5 metric tons load capacity – but many
of the 4x4 'Einheits'-passenger cars were deemed unfit for war-time service by the Wehrmacht internally, by 1938 – before World War Two had even started.

The new, standardized military vehicles were intended to replace
the diverse fleet of two-wheel drive, militarized civilian vehicles
previously procured by the Reichswehr – the Weimar Republic (1918–1933) predecessor of the Wehrmacht – with new cross-country mobile vehicles for military requirements in order to simplify logistics, maintenance and training by using standardized components. 

Leichter geländegängiger Pkw

The light off-road passenger car was built by the BMW-Werk Eisenach under the designation BMW 325, as well as Hanomag (Typ 20 B) and Stoewer(Typ R 180 Spezial). The vehicles were used as troop carriers (Kfz. 1), by repair-and-maintenance squads (Kfz. 2/40), by artillery reconnaissance sonic measurement squads (Kfz. 3) and by troop-level aerial defence (Kfz. 4). Between 14.525 and 17.521 units were built. Between 1940 and 1943, only Stoewer continued to build the R 200 Spezial without the four-wheel steering (Typ 40).
The cars weighed 1,775 kg empty (1,700 kg without the four-wheel
steering). 90% of all military branches rejected the vehicle as "unfit
for wartime service" in a 1942 enquiry, while the much simpler, lighter
and cheaper Volkswagen Kübelwagen proved to be far superior in basically every respect.