LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- The much-maligned symbol of motoring in Communist East Germany , the Trabant , is set to make an unlikely comeback as a concept car at this year 's International Motor Show in Frankfurt . The old-style Trabi is a common sight in Germany where tourist operators use the car for local tours . Designers have replaced the car 's smoke-belching two-stroke engine with electric fuel cells and solar-powered air-conditioning . This , they promise , is not the four-wheeled object of ridicule that rolled off production lines in East Germany from 1957 until 1991 . This is the new Trabant , or Trabi as they 're known , an energy-efficient city car for modern drivers . `` I think the market will be people who say the old Trabant was a cool car , and people who want to have a stylish car , and want to have a green car , '' Daniel Stiegler , of Herpa Miniaturemodelle , told CNN . Herpa is not a carmaker , at least not in the traditional sense . It makes model cars and airplanes , of the type that sit in display cabinets , not garages . Two years ago , a member of its management team , Klaus Schindler , decided it was time to make a miniature model of the Trabant . Herpa took it to the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in 2007 and were stunned by the response . `` We had a special folder where people at the fair could fill out and give it back to use . We had about 14,000 reactions on that , and most of them , 90 percent , said 'Yes , the Trabant is a really cool car , let 's bring it back , ' '' Stiegler said . Herpa teamed up with German auto parts maker IndiKar , which has designed a prototype to be unveiled at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in September . They hope to attract enough interest to put the car back into production . The early response of Trabi enthusiasts to an electric version of their much-loved cars has been encouraging . `` This will be an ideal vehicle to try it on , '' Geoff Armitage , who had been the president or chairman of the Wartburg Trabant IFA Club UK on and off for some 18 years . `` If they go for the same type of cladding of duroplast , or western-style glass fibre , you have a light body which obviously will be an advantage for an electric car . '' The original exterior of the cars was made from duroplast , a blend of cast-off cotton fibers from Russia mixed with glue . Armitage bought his first Trabant in the Netherlands in 1987 , two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall . Over the years , he 's owned around 20 of the German cars , adding `` we have several restoration projects in the yard at the moment . '' Like many admirers , he appreciates the Trabi 's simplicity . `` They are basic technology . There is absolutely nothing that we ca n't repair ourselves . If we ca n't get the parts we can usually make them , '' he laughed . `` If they can do the electrical conversion , for want of a better term , in a relatively low-tech way so they keep it simple I think it could be a success , '' he said . German filmmaker Maximilian Spohr spent four years making a documentary about the Trabant . He became fascinated about the car 's origins as a child growing up in the East where residents faced up to a fourteen-year wait for delivery of their vehicles . `` There was only a certain contingent , a certain amount , allowed every year , because they did n't have enough screws , they did n't have enough parts , '' he said . For his documentary , `` A Car For A Dollar , '' he interviewed former Trabant engineers and owners and found an abundance of nostalgia for the old-style vehicles , despite their association with Communist repression . `` People remember it as their only partner in crime , '' Spohr said . `` It was the one and only thing that brought them around the country . They were n't allowed to go far . This was the only vehicle they could use and it was always reliable , most times . '' Many of the cars were dumped by their owners as soon as they 'd driven them to freedom over the border from East to West . Spohr said it did n't take long for nostalgia to kick in and the first Trabi appreciation meeting was held in 1990 , just one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall . Of plans for a new , eco-friendly Trabi , Spohr says , `` '' I think it 's great . People would probably love it , I think it will sell . Big time . '' If the modern Trabant fails to materialize , there 's always the option to step back in time in the original version . Trabis can still be seen slowly weaving through traffic , particularly in Berlin and Dresden , where Trabi-Safari leads tourists in a procession of up to six cars to local points of interest .
Relic of Communist East Germany to be revived as eco-friendly city car . New electric Trabant to be unveiled at International Motor Show in Frankfurt . Car was once the only vehicle available in East before fall of Berlin Wall . Trabi enthusiasts admire the car 's simplicity , ability to make running repairs .