Beetle - New (1998-Present)

The VW Type 1, which was called the Beetle or Bug or Käfer (in German), is a small family car, the best known car of Volkswagen, one of the best known cars from Germany, and one of the most recognisable and distinctive cars in the world. more...

Thanks to its distinctive shape and sound, and its reliability, it now enjoys a "cult" status.

The Beetle was in production from 1938 until 2003, interrupted only by the Second World War. Over 21 million Beetles were produced.

The "Beetle" name was not originally given to the car. Inside Volkswagen, it was simply known as the "Type 1" until the 1968 model year (August 1967), when, for the first time, German brochures used the name "Der Käfer" (meaning "The Beetle" in German) on the front cover and inside. The Beetle name was later reused when the New Beetle was introduced in 1998.

History

The origins of the car date back to 1930s Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler wanted private motorized transport to be widely available and commissioned engineer Ferdinand Porsche to produce such a vehicle. Some claim that this was based on a sketch that Hitler drew in 1932, a year before he came to power. Hitler decreed that this car should be capable of transporting two adults and three children at a speed of 100 km/h (62 mph), and that it should cost no more than a motorcycle and sidecar to buy. A savings scheme was also launched that would enable the common people to buy the car. However, the advent and aftermath of World War II meant that those who paid into the scheme never received their cars. Rumors said that the Beetle was originally designed for conversion into a makeshift armored car in times of war. Its style resembles a tankette without a turret or armor.

Who designed the car is a matter of controversy. The official story is that it was designed by Ferdinand Porsche. But in the 1920s Joseph Ganz had already made a similar design for a car that was smaller and more affordable than existing models. Car manufacturers were not interested, but two motorcycle manufacturers were. Adler produced the Maikäfer and Standard the Superior, which it advertised as 'Der Deutsche Volkswagen' and was the cheapest four wheel car at the time. When the Nazis came to power, they tested the Superior and favorable reviews appeared in magazines. However, shortly after, the Nazis suddenly imprisoned Ganz for a while, fired him as chief editor of the magazine Motor-Kritik and confiscated his documents, after which he fled to Switzerland, never to return. The reason for this is probably that they found out he was a Jew. The Nazis then turned to Porsche, who produced a prototype of the Käfer that looked a lot like the Superior. Volkswagen says that Ganz wasn't the only one to have such a design and that the Käfer was not based on his. See also

Prototypes of the car called the KdF-Wagen (German: Kraft durch Freude = strength through joy; the car was so called because it was intended to be sold to members of the KdF, a Nazi leisure organization), appeared from 1935 onwards—the first prototypes were produced by Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart, Germany. The car already had its distinctive round shape (designed by Erwin Komenda) and its air-cooled, flat-four, rear-mounted engine. However, the factory (in the new town of Kdf-Stadt, purpose-built for the factory workers) had only produced a handful of cars by the time war started in 1939. Consequently, the first volume-produced versions of the car's chassis (if not body) were military vehicles, the Jeep-like Kübelwagen Typ 82 (approx. 52,000 built) and the amphibious Schwimmwagen Typ 166 (approx. 14,000 built).

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