Unlike a three-volume sedan, the hatchback is two-volume, only the engine part is separated, and the luggage compartment and passenger compartment are one whole.
Author of the book “Big Encyclopedia. Cars” Andrey Mernikov writes that hatchbacks are also called combi. Such a car has a cargo-passenger body with two or four side doors and one cargo door in the rear of the body. The total number of doors is 3 or 5. The hatchback has become one of the most popular bodies for a city car.
The term “hatchback” was coined several decades ago. The sedan has a trunk lid that hinges under the rear window, while the hatchback has an additional full-height door in the rear. This is why cars of this type are often described as having three or five doors, although you can only enter and exit through two or four doors on the sides.
The first hatchback appeared in 1965. The first hatchback was the Renault 16. The official debut of the car took place on March 10, 1965. The innovative feature of the car was the large rear door, which was actually a cargo hatch, and a convertible interior. When the rear seats were moved forward, the useful volume of the cargo compartment increased from 346 to 424 liters. With. At the same time, three people could still sit on them. The maximum usable trunk volume of 1200 liters was achieved by removing the rear seats.
Renault 16 was a front wheel drive car. Under the hood it had a 4-cylinder gasoline engine. The cylinder block was made of aluminum alloy, which was rare in those years. The cooling system used a fan not with a mechanical drive, but with an electric drive. The alternating current generator provided stable power to all consumers (headlights, windshield wipers, etc.) even at low speeds, for example, in city traffic jams.
This car was sold with the following engines: 59 hp. With. (working volume 1.5 l), 67 l. With. or 87 l. With. (1.6 l) and the top version 93 l. With. (1.7 l). The gearbox was usually a 4-speed, but a 5-speed was available upon request, and an automatic was also offered. Depending on the type of engine, the maximum speed of the car reached 142–170 km/h.
