Drive unit for motor vehicles

Drive unit for a motor vehicle, comprising an internal combustion engine (1), having an engine block, and designed to be mounted with its crankshaft transverse to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, an automatic gearbox (8) with a housing, which is disposed beside the engine block and with its axis parallel to the axis of the crankshaft, and with an input drive element (7) directed in the same direction as an output end of the crankshaft, and a chain transmission (4-6) between a torque converter driven by the crankshaft and said input drive element, an output drive element (13) in said gearbox housing driving a differential (14-18) which drives in turn two output shafts (19,20), one of which is a shaft journalled concentrically with the input drive element and having its output end directed towards the input end of the gearbox housing, characterized in that the engine (1) is an in-line engine and that the output drive element (13) of the gearbox (8) is coupled via a supplementary chain transmission (30) to an angle gear unit (36) having an output shaft element (39) designed to drive an additional drive axle (49,50).