This Day In History

February 17: Beetles become number one.

On this day in 1972, it became official: the humble Volkswagen Beetle had overtaken Ford’s Model T as the most successful production car ever, selling over 15 million vehicles.

Common knowledge mayeb, but did you know that the initial idea was conceived by car maverick Ferdinand Porsche and King of the Nazis, Adolf Hitler? Their vision was to build a mass-produced car affordable to the average German - the people's car.

Adolf was influenced by Henry Ford after reading his biography during a stretch in the slammer in 1923. Porsche had previously worked on other small cars that used many elements later to be included in the Beetle.

Hitler became chancellor in February 1933 and by 1934 had delivered Porsche a design - a car that could carry two adults and three children at a speed of 60mph. The price was 1,000 Reichmarks, not much more than a motorcycle in those days. Porsche wasn’t convinced a car could be made so cheaply – but took the challenging project on (Hitler could apparently be quite "persuasive").

In May 1938, Hitler opened a new factory – watched by 70,000 people and 150 reporters. Production of the ‘Kdf-Wagen,’ was to start in September 1939 – this turned out to be the same month World War Two was declared. The Beetle was on hold.

During the war it first changed to production of military vehicles and then towards the latter stages it made the ‘buzz bomb.’ By 1943 more than 12,000 prisoners of war were working at the factory.

When the war finished and Hitler had topped himself, the Brits took over the heavily bombed factory and called it the Wolfsburg factory.

In 1948 it was decided that the Volkswagen range needed to be expanded, and the go-ahead was given for two factories to produce prototype versions of the Beetle. The Beetle was alive and kicking, and with some amendments to its strength, it became hugely popular in the Swinging Sixties.

In 1971, the Wolfsburg factory started making the ‘Super Beetle,’ and it continued to make them until 1978. These had new front suspension, meaning the fuel tank was repositioned giving an increased luggage capacity.

America continued to make the Beetle until 1980, and a factory in Mexico made them until 1985 – demand in Europe for the Beetle was still high, so they were imported in. The 20,000,000th Beetle rolled off the Mexican production line in May 1981.

The new style Beetle came into production in 1998.