Neue Automobil-Gesellschaft was a German automobile manufacturer in Berlin. In 1915 it was renamed Nationale Automobil-Gesellschaft . In 1902, German electrical company AEG purchased the coachbuilding side of Kühlstein under engineer Joseph Vollmer, renaming it NAG. The company's first two cars were reliable, if unoriginal: the two-cylinder Typ A and 5.2 liter four-cylinder Typ B, both with chain drive, which resembled contemporary Mercédès. Shortly, an enlarged Typ B2, with 40/45hp 7.9-liter four, appeared. In 1907, one of these was given to the Empress Auguste Viktoria. The next year, AEG got out of the car business, but NAG continued alone, introducing a 15hp 1502 cc four called Puck, with a remarkable ability to rev to 3000 rpm, which may have contributed to its ability to win the Gothenburg Cup at the Swedish Winter Trials in 1912, 1913, and 1914. This sporting reputation was balanced by "aggressively ugly Prince Henry-type bodies". The Puck would later be developed into a model known in Germany as the Darling. From 1911 to 1914, NAG's standard offering was an 8495 cc 60 hp, joined in 1912-14 by a 1502 cc 10/12 hp K2, 2085 cc 14/20 hp K4, 3308 cc 20/25 hp K5, and a 5193 cc 25/35 hp. in Berlin-Oberschöneweide During the recovery after World War I, NAG produced smaller numbers of 2.5-liter C4s, essentially prewar K4s with new vee radiators replacing the prewar oval ones. The economic situation was so serious, NAG partnered with Brennabor, Lloyd, and Hansa to form GDA, to prevent competition from destroying them all. It proved successful for NAG, which prospered, enough to build the C4b sports variant, designed by chief engineerChristian Riecken. Riecken ran a C4b at the newly opened AVUS in 1922, winning at 84.3 mph, which was greater than the C4's top speed. It sacrificed nothing to reliability, as NAG went on to place well at the 1923 All-Russian Trials and the ADAC Reich Trials for 1923-26. In 1924, NAG hit its apex at Monza, where Riecken and Hans Berthold won the Gran Premio della Norte in a C4b, covering 1656 mi in 24 hours, an average of 68.99 mph, for which the model was renamed Monza. In 1926, Protos was acquired from Siemens-Schuckert, leading to "a series of dull six-cyliner cars". The next year, NAG again expanded, taking over Presto, which had just boughtDux, continuing to build the 2.6-liter Typ F and 3-liter Typ G. The difficulty was, despite their quality, none of these were distinctly different from other German cars of the period. In response, NAG created a disastrous straight-eight, which was never built, then hired former Impéria and Steiger man Paul Henze, "one of Germany's most gifted car designers", in an effort to remedy this situation with a new top-line car. Henze settled on a 4540 cc V8, Germany's first to enter production which became "one of the outstanding German luxury cars of 1931, the NAG 212." Rather than rely on conventional shaft drive, however, NAG chose to attempt to fit a VoranFWD system to a backbone chassis with independent suspension, which proved too ambitious, and the development costs disastrous. In 1934, NAG ceased car production, while NAG-Büssing commercial vehicles continued to be produced for a few more years. During the Second World War, the company produced the Sd.Kfz. 231, Sd.Kfz. 232, Sd.Kfz. 233, and Sd.Kfz. 234 series armoured cars.
