History: A brief history of the Beetle

It all began in 1934 when the leader of Nazi-Germany, Adolf Hitler, ordered dr. Ferdinand Porsche to develop a new small 'car for the people'. Tough Porsche was not a Nazi supporter, he accepted Hitler's offer, because he was the only one who was interested in Porsche's project. Porsche had ideas about a small car of his own at that time.
The car must contain to following aspects: a weight of 650 Kg, a cruise speed of 100 km/h or 60 miles/h with 26 hp. The engine of the car should be air-cooled and it should drive 100 km on only 7 litres of fuel. The car must also be cheap to construct, so the prefered group, the ordinary people, could afford to buy it.

A picture of an early VW prototype.

Soon, Porsche began to construct a few prototypes. All these cars were already a good example of the final model, the Volkswagen. The Volkswagen was presented in 1938 and it contained a 985 cc air-cooled engine with 24 hp and a topspeed of 97 km/h or almost 60 miles/h, the engine was placed at the rear of the car. The car had a very round shape, this was also the reason why it became its nickname 'Beetle'. A American reporter thought it looked like an insect, a beetle. The car was put into production at the factory in Wolfsburg, a new town in the 30s espacially created for the worksmen of the new factory. But soon after this, World War II started and the plant of Volkswagen was turned into a factory for military vehicles. Examples can be seen here.

The interior of a Beetle.

When the war ended, the British command re-started the Volkswagen's production in the remainings of the Wolfsburg factory. The car became popular in Europe. It started when Dutch businessman Ben Pon imported the first Volkswagen (or Beetles) to Holland in 1947. This meant the start of huge success for the Volkswagen company. In the following years, production increased and soon some small improvements were made to the car, to stay in front of the competition. In 1948 the Beetle gained a new 1131 cc engine.

In 1953, one characteristic of the early Beetle disappeared, the famous split screen was replaced by an oval window. One year later the Beetle got another new engine, VW introduced the new 1192 cc, 30 hp, engine. The oval window didn't last long, because in 1957 the oval window was replaced by a larger, more rectangular window. In the following year the Beetle got a new interior. Now there was the opportunity to build in a radio and speakers on the dashboard.

In the early sixties, VW improved the existing 1192 cc engine, which got 34 hp now. In '62, the Beetle gained much better rear-light, due to safety changes by governments all-over the world, it also got a fuel gauge. Since 1961, all Beetles got electrical direction indicators. The American version of the Beetle did have these already in 1956, because the safety measures in the USA were stricter then the European safety measures at that time. At this time, the Beetle was a international succes. VW had built new assembling factory's across the entire world. Millions of Beetle's had been sold, but the best was yet to come.

At the end of the sixties, the Beetle was improved heavily. In 1965, the Beetle got a new 1285 cc 40 hp engine, the 1967 model is known as one of the best Beetles ever made, it got disc-brakes at the front, a powerful 1493 cc engine and a 12 volts installation. The only outside difference was a new bonnet due to the larger engine. In '68, the headlights of the Beetle were placed vertical and also the rear-lights were changed.

Examples of VW advertisement in the sixties.

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In the seventies, the Beetle was getting old, competitive branches introduced more modern and better cars then the Beetle. VW introduced new models herself, Examples are the beautiful Karmann-Ghia and the very practical Volkswagen Transporter. These models were very succesful, but the other new VW models couldn't reach their expectations. The Beetle was changed again..., drastically. To include the new McPherson suspension, the Beetle was reshaped. She became more wider and swollen. In '73 the Beetle got a panoramic windscreen. But all this couldn't help the Beetle. When VW introduced the Beetle's successor, the VW Golf, the Beetle was doomed.

Because of the Golf and because the improvements didn't attract much more custemors, the Beetle of the late seventies was almost the same as the Beetle of the early sixties, only its dashboard was different, because it was made of synthetic material at this time. But at the 19th of January 1978, the final Beetle was put together in Emden, Germany.

The Beetle still existed though. In countries like Mexico and Brazil the Beetle remained in production untill late in the nineties. But now the New Beetle has been released, the future of the Beetle looks, after more then sixty years of production, very black.