The first of the Trabants left the factory of the VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Saxony on 7 November 1957. The Trabant was a relatively advanced car when it was launched in 1958, with front wheel drive, a unitary construction, composite bodywork, and independent suspension. Its greatest downfall was its engine: by the late 1950s many small cars in western countries already used cleaner and more efficient four-stroke engines like that in the Renault. Budgetary constraints and raw materials shortages forced the use of an outdated but inexpensive two-stroke engine in the Trabant. When released, the Trabant was technically equivalent to the West German Lloyd automobile, which had an air cooled two-cylinder four-stroke engine in a similarly sized vehicle.

1958 marked the production of the original Trabant, the P50. This car was the base model of the Trabant series, and even the latest 1.1s shared a large number of interchangeable parts. The 500 cc 18 hp (13 kW) P50 evolved into a 20 hp (15 kW) version in 1960, gaining a fully synchronized gearbox amongst other things, and finally got a 23 hp 600 cc engine in 1962, becoming the P60.