In July of 2019, production on what is perhaps one of the
most iconic and important cars of all time came to an
end.
Volkswagen is one of the world's largest automakers.
It houses brands such as Audi, Porsche and Bentley.
But perhaps its best known vehicle is this little thing:
the Volkswagen Beetle.
There are few vehicles in the history of the world
that have been as important as a Volkswagen Beetle.
This car arose from the ashes of Nazi Germany, became a symbol of
the 60s counterculture, and has been immortalized over and over in
film and popular culture.
It is perhaps been in production longer than any other car in history
over the entire lifespan of the car.
Volkswagen sold over 21.5
million original Beatles.
That makes it the most successful car design ever.
Even more than the famed Ford Model T, which it eclipsed in total sales
on February 17, 1970, to more than
22.5 million of all three versions of the Beatles have been made
in terms of popularity.
The Beatles nameplate trails only the Volkswagen Golf and the Toyota
Corolla among passenger cars.
And now it might be gone forever.
To understand the beetle, it helps to know it's strange and sometimes
disconcerting history.
Specifically, the car that became a hippie icon and Hollywood star
actually traces its roots back to Hitler's Third Reich.
The name Volkswagen in German means people's car and the
Volkswagen Beetle was originally intended to be exactly that,
a car for the people in the early days of the automotive industry.
Cars were a luxury only the wealthiest could afford.
Of course, this began to change when makers such as Henry Ford pioneered
production methods that made cars accessible to the every man.
At that time, the term Volkswagen was not yet a brand name, but a term
used in automotive circles to describe a relatively new concept of the
people's car, a vehicle that would be attainable for the masses.
The idea of mass motoring also appealed to Adolf Hitler, who had risen
to power in Germany in 1933 and was reputed to be quite a
car enthusiast.
An engineer named Ferdinand Porsche?
Yes, that Porsche submitted a proposal to the new German government to
design a small lightweight people's car.
In 1934, Ferdinand Porsche was directed to
create a people's car for Germans to
travel to New Orleans and also to be used as military vehicles.
Though several other automakers had also presented designs for a people's
car, Hitler took up Porsches idea in large part because of Porsche's
reputation in racing.
It was this design that would later become the Volkswagen Beetle.
In 1938, the National Socialist Trade Union called the German
Labor Front, started the Volkswagen Work Company and began building a
factory to produce the cars.
The group planned to make 150000 people's cars within the first year of
the factory's plant, opening in 1939, 300000 in the
second year and 450000 in the third.
In 1938, Porsche's car was revealed and Hitler named it the
KdF-Wagon. The letters K,D,F stood for the German
phrase strength through joy.
A Nazi era propaganda slogan.
As war broke out, the factory intended to build the cars was retooled for
weapons and eventually military vehicles.
All customer orders for the planned car were cancelled.
Even for those who had paid out of their salaries for them, the use of the
factory for weapons ended on April 11th, 1945, when American
forces arrived.
The Americans turned over the management of the region to the British who
recognized the utility of the factory and providing a livelihood for local
Germans.
They switched the factory over to make civilian vehicles.
There were shortages of raw materials and other obstacles.
But this began the modern era of the car, officially called the
Volkswagen type one and known to much of the world as the
Beatles.
The British occupying forces in charge of the factory made several
decisions that were crucial to Volkswagen's future.
They set up a sales force, a department for servicing the vehicles and a
school for training mechanics.
The British even trained mechanics themselves, using members of the
British Army's own Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
They also made the choice to start exporting cars, beginning the
transformation of the Volkswagen Beetle and the company itself into the
international icons they are known to be today.
Volkswagen was selling across Europe into the United States and even in
Africa by the 1950s.
Volkswagen and its Beetle both became symbols of what people called
Germany's economic miracle.
The name given to the country's rapid reconstruction and revival in the
years following World War Two.
Well, you know, the beetle had two kind of lives.
I mean, its early life in Europe was during the rebuilding after the war.
So a lot of people in Europe viewed it as cheap, affordable
transportation.
And it didn't become a cultural icon like it is in the U.S.
now, in the U.S., when when kids were buying them in the 60s, it was sort
of rebelling against their parents.
You had big American cars were the norm.
These were cheap, affordable, exotic, really, because you're from
Europe.
And I think that that's what helped establish them as as a big cultural
icon.
The car also gained a unique reputation in some of the markets where it
was sold, especially in the United States.
It was a car that stood apart.
It enjoyed a rare kind of class looseness in that it was beloved by a
wide range of buyers from all different backgrounds.
It appealed to wealthy and working class buyers alike.
It also gained a reputation as one of the emblems of the 60s
counterculture.
The small car was cheap to buy and easy to fix, and along with the VW
bus, symbolized the rejection of the large fuel guzzling
American cars of the time.
By the 1970s, the Beatles, now decades old design was losing
ground to a new generation of cars with water cooled engines and
front wheel drive, which boasted more interior space and larger
trunks.
The car also began to fall behind competitors in safety and fuel economy.
The revaluation of Germany's currency also posed competitive problems for
Volkswagen, forcing the company to raise prices in markets such as the
United States.
Between 1970 and 1976, Volkswagen of America's
sales dropped from around five hundred sixty five thousand vehicles to
just over 230000, and its market share was a mere two
point three percent.
Volkswagen began to broaden its lineup of vehicles producing the golf,
polo and Passat over the next three decades.
The beetle faded into the background and the company became better known
for its successors.
In 1998, Volkswagen decided to bring the Beetle back in a new
form as a bubbly front engined car.
The new beetle was one of the leaders of the trend of retro styled cars
that followed, which included such models as the Chrysler P.T.
Cruiser and redesigned Ford Thunderbird with its bright colors and small
flower holder on the dashboard.
The car attracted a new generation of customers seeking a unique and fun
vehicle. There were some fans of the old bill who appreciated the cars
revival, but others complained that the new beetle had a cutesy appearance
and that its price point was relatively high compared with its
predecessor.
So I think there was this great welling of of of looking back
and that sort of died out now that we're in the new and the new well
into the new millennium. And I think people are beginning to look forward
again.
The car was a disappointment to longtime fans and purists hoping for a
return to the original air cooled rear engine vehicle.
Nevertheless, it was something of a hit with a new generation of drivers.
And Volkswagen sold more than one point two million new beetles globally
between 1998 and 2010, while Volkswagen promoted its new beetle in
major markets such as the U.S.,
the original Beetle was still selling in other markets around the world,
especially in Latin America, for at least three years.
Volkswagen was selling two different versions of the Beetle to different
sets of customers. Production of the original Beetle continued until
2003 at Volkswagen's factory in Puebla, Mexico.
A mariachi band followed the final car as it rolled down the production
line.
Production of the Beetle at the Pueblo facility didn't end with the
original VW bug.
In fact, it would be home to all Beetle production for the 1998 and 2011
versions of the car that had been sold in 91 markets around the world.
But sales of the second generation beetle declined as its novelty wore off
and the trend in retro auto design waned.
So in 2011, Volkswagen redesigned the vehicle again, this time
with a more understated aesthetic that bore more of a resemblance to the
original and was more grown up than its predecessor.
It failed to capture the minds of buyers and never hit the sales numbers
of the second generation.
Part of the trouble was that Volkswagen was refining the design of the
Beetle at a time when people were beginning to abandon cars.
It held on for a few years, selling over one hundred seventy five thousand
in the U.S. during its run.
But then it was gone.
On July 10th, 2019, Volkswagen announced the end of
production of the iconic Beetle.
The second generation, if you look at the design of that thing, it
actually hews closer to the original the a little bit flatter.
I think it looks really good.
I like I'd like what they have done in making it a more
sort of grown up design.
But the problem is that you're stuck there.
You're stuck with a two door coupe in a market that has gone SUV
crazy.
Could the beetle ever return to the world?
Never say never. Said one Volkswagen executive.
But the automaker also said there were no immediate plans to replace it.
Volkswagen has been focused on its push toward developing family vehicles
and electrified cars, but its influence lives on and other cars
the company has made.
Perhaps most striking is the planned revival of the Volkswagen bus.
Volkswagen said it plans in 2022 to begin producing a version of the
I.D. Buzz concept bus it introduced a few years ago.
The original bus, which was first produced in 1950, was built on the
original Beatles platform.
So even after its death, the Beatles could continue to leave marks on the
automotive world.