Start-stop systems as we now know them, have had an eventful history. More than 40 years ago, Toyota developers presented an electronic system to automatically stop the engine when the vehicle stopped. At the beginning of the 1980’s Volkswagen made initial attempts in this direction – in those days with a button to switch off the engine when required. The result: The Golf III Ecomatic was the first vehicle from the Wolfsburg car manufacturer to be equipped with a start stop function.
