Description
De Volkswagen Beetle – officially the Volkswagen Type 1 , informal in German der Käfer (what " kever ” means), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug and known by many other nicknames in other languages – is a two-door economical car with rear engine, intended for five occupants (later Beetles were limited to four people in some countries), dIt was manufactured and marketed by the German car manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 to 2003.
The need for one passenger car ( Volkswagen in German), the concept and 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 were promised the first production with an additional contribution surcharge, but the Spanish civil War shifted most of the means of production to military vehicles nationalists onder Francisco Franco to support .
Chief engineer Ferdinand Porsche and his team took until 1938 to complete the design. Bela Barenyi is credited with coming up with the original design for this car in 1925, specifically by Mercedes-Benz, on their website, including its original technical drawing, five years before Porsche claimed its first version. The influence on Porsche's design of other contemporary cars, such as the Tatra V570 , and the work of Joseph Ganz remains a subject of discussion. The result was the first Volkswagen and one of the first cars with the rear engine sinds of Brass Era. With 21.529.464 units produced, the Beetle is the longest running and most produced car of an ankle Portal ever made.
Although designed in the 30s, civilian Beetles were not produced in large numbers until the late 40s due to the second World War . The car was then internally called the Volkswagen Type 1 and marketed simply as the Volkswagen. Later models were referred to as Volkswagen 1200, 1300, 1500, 1302 or 1303, the first three indicating the cylinder capacity , the last two are derived from the model number.
The car became commonly known in its home country as the Beetle (German for " kever “, related to English chafer ) and was later marketed under that name in Germany and as Volkswagen in other countries. For example, in France it was known as the Coccinelle (French for ladybug ). The original 25 hp (18,6 kW) Beetle was designed for a top speed of approximately 100 km/h (62 mph), which would be an achievable cruising speed on the Reichsautobahn -system. As the speed of the Autobahn increased in the post-war years, power was increased to 36, then 40 hp (26,8, then 29,8 kW), the configuration that lasted until 1966 and became the “classic” Volkswagen engine. The Beetle gave rise to several variants: mainly the Type 2 'Bus' from 1950, the Karmann Ghia from 1955, as well as the Type 3 'Ponton' from 1961 and the family car 's Type 4 (411/412) from 1968 , which eventually formed the basis of a fully rear-mounted VW product range.
The Beetle marked an important trend, led by Volkswagen, and then on Fiat en Renault , where the rear-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive layout rose from 2,6 percent of car production in continental Western Europe in 1946 to 26,6 percent in 1956. In 1959, even General Motors launched an air-cooled rear-engine car, the Chevrolet Corvair – which also has flat engine and swing axle construction van de Kever shared .
Over time, cars would with front-wheel drive and often hatchback to dominate the European small car market. Volkswagen's own front-wheel drive model followed in 1974 Golf hatchback on the Beetle. In 1994, Volkswagen unveiled the Concept One, a concept car with a “retro” theme that resembles the original Beetle, and in 1998 Volkswagen introduced the ” New Beetle “, built on it contemporary Gulf – platform with styling reminiscent of the original Type 1. Remained in production until 2010 and was succeeded in 2011 by the Beetle (A5), the last variant of the Beetle, which was also more reminiscent of the original Beetle. Production stopped completely in 2019.
