Volkswagen Beetle
3rd June 2020 - 85th Anniversary.
the Volkswagen Beetle was manufactured and marketed by German automaker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003.
The need for a people's car ("Volkswagen" in German), its concept and functional objectives, was formulated by the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap, simple car to be mass-produced for his country's new road network. Lead engineer Ferdinand Porsche and his team took until 1938 to finalize the design.
With 21,529,464 produced, the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single platform ever made.
The Beetle featured large in popular culture and in the 1960s became a Hollywood star in The Love Bug, the first in a series of comedies about Herbie, the Bug with a mind of its own.
From the much-mulled-over Beetle on the cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album, to Herbie Fully Loaded (Disney’s 2005 Love Bug reboot), to the recurring role of the indigo-hued New Beetle in TV’s Breaking Bad the Beetle's brand identity is still remembered today.
