The Type 60 prototype for the quintessential people’s car may have appeared in 1935, but proper production of the Beetle started in 1941. After World War II, the Volkswagen brand boomed on a worldwide scale in 1945, and the rest, as they say, is history. Fast-forward to August 2017, and the automaker is happy to announce that it finished making its 150,000,000th car.
As you’ll find out from the video at the end of the story, the anniversary model is an e-Golf that rolled off the assembly line in Wolfsburg. What a long way VW has come from the air-cooled Beetle to the electric push it advocates in this day and age, and as you already know, the e-Golf is only the start.
In the wake of the Dieselgate mess-up, Volkswagen took a cue from Tesla’s success and stepped up its electrification game. The company took to itself to launch more than 300 electric vehicles by the year 2025, including a remake of the Bulli/Microbus with concept car styling and a versatile interior.
"150 million vehicles – that is a truly incredible number. It is 150 million Volkswagens that have taken their drivers hundreds of thousands of kilometers, commuting to work, enjoying leisure time, going on vacation, or traveling on business,” declared Bernd Osterloh, chairman of the Volkswagen Group and General Works Council. On that note, care to guess which are the company’s best-selling model lines to date? Nope, the Beetle isn’t #1.
The ever-popular Golf surpassed the air-cooled classic in 2007, with total production numbering more than 34 million units. The original Beetle (1938 to 2003), meanwhile, stopped at almost 21,530,000 units. 20 million Passat vehicles, 19.5 million Jettas, and 17 million Polos round off the list, with the Volkswagen brand portfolio currently consisting of more than 60 models.
As for the people who made it all happen, the Wolfsburg-based plants can claim the biggest bragging rights. According to VW, more than 44 million cars have been produced in its home city in these past 70-plus years.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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