Karmann is a body building firm as well as developer and manufacturer of special vehicles, in particular Cabrios on basis of other manufacturers, for example Volkswagen. In Germany the Karmann group has about 8000 coworkers, further locations is the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal and Great Britain. The annual turnover was 2005 with 1,8 billion euro. Since 1949 with Karmann about 3 million vehicles were manufactured

Enterprise history begins, as a William Karmann SR. 1901 in (horse) the car factory Christian Klages take over.

Karmann Ghia

The Karmann Ghia is the most well-known independent vehicle model of Karmann. It was developed on behalf of Volkswagen with Karmann and built and justified the good reputation of the company. It was available both and Coupe and and Cabriolet. The designer of this car like many different with Karmann was Johannes Beeskow, which led the technical development from 1956 to 1976 with Karmann.

Further vehicle models

For the following vehicle manufacturers with Karmann vehicles and/or bodies were produced.

• AUDI
• BMW many e.g. the 6er E24
• DaimlerChrysler
• Ford
• Kia of engine
• Porsche
• Renault
• Volkswagen

In addition Karmann surprises again and again with beautiful and innovative Design studies, like on the IAA in Frankfurt 2005. Here Karmann presented a jeep with Cabriodach and moving in opposite directions opening doors.

As partner with development, Design and production the William Karmann GmbH takes part in the recent market appearance of a steeped in tradition sportscar manufacturer: In an exclusive small series since autumn 2005 the supersports car C8 Spyder of the Netherlands mark Spyker is manufactured. Within three years 350 copies of the extravaganten two-seater are to be produced

Total production

Altogether Karmann in its firm history produced over three million vehicles of the following models.

{|| AUDI 80 Cabrio||1997 - 2000||12.112 Einheiten| | AUDI A4 Cabrio||2002 - heute||81.959 units (conditions: At the end of of 2004) |-| BMW 2000 C/CS||1965 - 1970||13.696 Rohkarosserien| | BMW 3.0 CS||1971 - 1975||21.147 Einheiten| | BMW 635 CSI||1976 - 1989||86.314 Einheiten| | Chrysler Crossfire - heute||37.896 Einheiten| | Chrysler Crossfire Cabrio||2003 - heute||16.269 Einheiten| | Ford Escort R-S Cosworth||1992 - 1996||8.082 Einheiten| | Ford Escort FEC Cabrio||1983 - 1990||104.237 Einheiten| | Ford Escort Cabrio||1990 - 1997||80.620 Einheiten| | Ford Merkur XR4Ti, (US version) Ford the Sierra XR4i|-| Karmann Ghia Cabrio|| 1957 - 1974||362.601 Einheiten| | Karmann Ghia - 1974||80.881 Einheiten| | Karmann Ghia Typ34||1961 - 1969||42.505 Einheiten| | Kia Sportage - 1998||25.984 units |-| country Rover Defender||2002 - heute||2.777 Einheiten| | Mercedes CLK A208 Cabrio||1998 - 2003||115.264 units |-| Mercedes CLK C208 - 2002||28.706 units |-| Mercedes CLK A209 Cabrio||2003 - heute| | Porsche 914||1969 - 1976||118.949 Einheiten| | Porsche 968||1991 - 1994 ||11.803 Einheiten| | Renault 19 Cabrio||1990 - 1996||29.222 raw bodies and Verdecksysteme| | Renault I Cabrio||1996 - 2003||74.096 complete raw bodies and Verdecke |-| Renault CC Cabrio|| since 2004|-| triumph TR6||1969 - 1976|-| VOLKSWAGEN Corrado||1988 - 1995||97.521 Einheiten| | VOLKSWAGEN gulf I Cabrio ||1979 - 1993||388.522 Einheiten| | VOLKSWAGEN gulf III Cabrio||1993 - 1997||129.475 Einheiten| | VOLKSWAGEN gulf IV Cabrio (basis gulf III) ||1997 - 2001||82.588 Einheiten| | VOLKSWAGEN gulf III Variant||1997 - 1999||80.928 units |-| VOLKSWAGEN beetle Cabrio||1949 - 1980||331.847 Einheiten| | VOLKSWAGEN Scirocco I||1974 - 1980||504.153 Einheiten| | VOLKSWAGEN Scirocco II||1980 - 1992||291.497 Einheiten| | VOLKSWAGEN bus with Karmann Gipsy live-mobilely structure

Current vehicles from the production of Karmann

• AUDI Cabriolet on basis of the AUDI A4
• Chrysler Crossfire
• Chrysler Crossfire Roadster
• Mercedes CLK Cabriolet

Current production of body modules

Karmann manufactures further body modules for the following vehicles:

• Roof modules
  • AUDI A4 Cabriolet (2001)
  • Bentley Continental GTC Cabriolet (2006)
  • Chrysler Crossfire Roadster
  • Mercedes CLK Cabriolet (1998)
  • Nissan Micra CC Cabriolet/Coupe (2005)
  • Renault CC Cabriolet/Coupe (2002)
  • VOLKSWAGEN new Beetle Cabriolet

• Chassis
  • Mercedes Benz SLK
  • Spyker C8 Spyder (2006)

Further enterprise activities

The company Karmann is involved in the development of the Mercedes Benz Vaneo as well as further developments in the commercial motor vehicle range (MAN ONE). Furthermore Karmann is a manufacturer of tools for deep drawing presses (section Karmann tool and building of means of production).

Related links

• Website of the Karmann group
• Pictures of the Karmann museum
• 50 years VOLKSWAGEN Karmann Ghia

Articles in category "Karmann"

We found here 7 articles.

Related Websites

We found here 5 related websites.

• Karmann Ghia World
  Technical and restoration information on Karmann Ghias.


• Karmann-Ghia Volkswagen
  Karmann-Ghia, le site francophone. Restauration, donn


• The Karmann Ghia Centre
  Karmann Ghia car dealer. Profile and services with information abourt restoration and a used car stock list.


• Welcome to Karmann
  Welcome to Karmann. To date, about 8000 employees around the world are working to satisfy our customers' demands and to contribute to the future of the ...


• Welcome to Karmann Konnection
  Welcome to Karmann Konnection. We first arrived on the web in 1997 with a couple of pages ... Karmann Konnection can be reached by typing into your browser: ...