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Volkswagen announced Thursday it would stop producing its Beetle compact car in 2019, ending a model that went back to the 1960s counterculture as the automaker geared up for a future towards consumer electric cars.
The original VW Beetle, developed in the 1930s, went from a product identified with Adolf Hitler to a symbol of the revival of Germany as a democratic industrial power after World War II. In the 1960s, the Beetle was a small icon of the postwar baby boom generation. Volkswagen abandoned US sales of the "bug" in 1979, but continued production for Mexico and Latin America.
In the mid-1990s, as Volkswagen struggled to boost sales in the United States, Ferdinand Piech, then managing director, lobbied to revive and modernize the distinctive Beetle design developed by his grandfather, Ferdinand Porsche. . The result was a crescent-shaped car called "New Beetle", launched in 1998, that offered playful touches like an integrated flower vase.
The New Beetle was a success in its early years, with sales of more than 80,000 in the United States in 1999, but US sales have recently suffered with most other small cars. Overall, VW has sold about 5,000,000 ladybugs worldwide since 1998, the company said.
Volkswagen sold a total of 11,151 Beetles in the United States in the first eight months of 2018, down 2.2% from the same period a year earlier. American consumers looking for a small Volkswagen vehicle massively prefer the Jetta sedan or a compact Tiguan sport utility vehicle. The Jetta, Tiguan and Beetle are built for North America and other markets in a factory in Mexico.
The end of the Beetle comes at a turning point for Volkswagen. The last three years of the German automaker have been shaken by the consequences of a scandal provoked by his confession of cheating on diesel emissions. Now, Volkswagen is preparing to launch a wave of electric vehicles to attract a new generation of environmentally conscious consumers – children and grandchildren of 1960s Ladybug enthusiasts.
In a statement announcing the end of the ladybug, Hinrich Woebcken, director of Volkswagen of America, said that as the company accelerates its electrification strategy, there are no plans to replace the ladybug. However, his statement did not rule out one day. He noted the ID of the company. Buzz, a prototype for the reincarnation of the microbus in the 21st century. The automaker has declared its intention to put a similar vehicle in the Id. Buzz in production as an electric vehicle.
The company said two special Beetle models would join the final lineup – Final Edition SE and Final Edition SEL – in the United States and offer driver assistance technology.
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