The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German der Käfer (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug,
and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door,
rear-engine economy car, intended for five occupants (later, Beetles
were restricted to four people in some countries), that 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 its functional objectives were 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
(Reichsautobahn). Members of the National Socialist party, with an
additional dues surcharge, were promised the first production, but the
Spanish Civil War shifted most production resources to military vehicles
to support the Nationalists under Francisco Franco. Lead engineer
Ferdinand Porsche and his team took until 1938 to finalise the design.
Béla Barényi
is credited with first conceiving the original design for this car in
1925, notably by Mercedes-Benz, on their website, including his original
technical drawing, five years before Porsche claimed to have done his
initial version. The influence on Porsche's design of other contemporary
cars, such as the Tatra V570, and the work of Josef Ganz remains a
subject of dispute. The result was the first Volkswagen, and one of the
first rear-engined cars since the Brass Era. With 21,529,464 produced,
the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single
platform ever made.
