Today in History: Beetle overtakes Model T as world’s best-selling car
The history of the VW Beetle dates back to 1930s Germany.
On this day in 1972, the 15 007 034th Volkswagen Beetle came off the assembly line, breaking a world car production record held for more than four decades by the Ford Motor Company’s iconic Model T, which was in production from 1908 to 1927.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and announced he wanted to build new roads and affordable cars for the German people. At that time, Austrian-born engineer Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951) was already working on creating a small car for the masses.
Hitler and Porsche later met and the engineer was charged with designing the inexpensive, mass-produced Volkswagen, or ‘people’s car’. Hitler’s plan was that people would be able to buy the cars by making regular payments into a savings stamp programme. In 1938, work began on the Volkswagen factory, located in present-day Wolfsburg, Germany; however, full-scale vehicle production didn’t begin until after World War II.
In the 1950s, the Volkswagen arrived in the US, where its initial reception was tepid, due in part to the car’s historic Nazi connection as well as its small size and unusual rounded shape (which later led to it being dubbed the ‘Beetle). In 1959, the advertising agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach, launched a groundbreaking campaign that promoted the car’s diminutive size as a distinct advantage to consumers, and over the next several years, VW became the top-selling auto import in the US.
In 1998, Volkswagen began selling the highly touted ‘New Beetle’ while still continuing production of its predecessor. After more than 60 years and over 21 million vehicles produced, the last original Beetle rolled off the line in Puebla, Mexico on 30 July 2003.
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