Not so fast: Volkswagen Beetle could come back as all-electric e-Beetle

Volkswagen has seemingly had second thoughts yet again about ending the Beetle name based on a new claim from Australia.

Although production of the Beetle ended just over a year ago with the final example rolling out of the Puebla Plant in Mexico on 10 July, motoring.com.au reports that Wolfsburg has submitted a trademark application to the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office for the e-Beetle name in Europe, suggesting that its most iconic car could return yet again with an all-electric powertrain.

According to the online publication, the claim was posted by a member of the VWIDTalk online forum and included not only the e-Beetle name, but also e-Samba in reference to the T2, e-Golf Classic, e-Karmann hinting at a possible revival of the Karmann Ghia and most surprisingly, e-Kübel that refers to the Beetle-based Kübelwagen used during the Second World War that went on to spawn the Type 181, more commonly known by its US market name, the Thing.

The apparent revival of the Beetle comes as an unexpected surprise after the marque’s Research and Development Head, Frank Welsch, told Britain’s Autocar at the Geneva Motor Show two years ago that “two or three generations is enough now” and that the Beetle, which was revived as the New Beetle in 1997 and then re-introduced in 2011 simply as the Beetle based on the same PQ35 platform as the Golf V, was “made with history in mind but you can’t do it five times and have a new new new Beetle”.

“People asked when production starts on the car, so we decided to go that way. Better to have that than having five generations of a new Beetle,” Welsch said.

Based on the trademark, the Beetle, when or if it does  become reality, will ride on the same MEB platform as the ID range with same set to be true of the other models mentioned in the post.

The revival of the Kübelwagen though is likely to attract considerable attention after Volkswagen confirmed last month that the ID Buggy concept won’t be reaching production due to financial issues of chief supplier e:GO Mobile. A fair amount of hype could also surround the return of the much loved Karmann Ghia name after production of the Scirocco ended a year before the Beetle.

Despite Welsch telling Auto Express at the time that the Golf V-based Scirocco could be reinvented as a MEB model, its absence from the application list has seemingly sealed its fate again.

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