Home › Volkswagen › 2012 VW Beetle

2012 VW Beetle

A look back to the start: at the beginning Volkswagen built one of the most successful cars of all time and did not even give it a name. Why should it? After all, it was the Volkswagen! People loved it, and on all of the world’s continents the small car was nicknamed according to precisely what it looked like: Beetle, Käfer, Vocho, Coccinelle, Fusca, Maggiolino or 甲壳虫! It embodied the automotive concept itself and symbolised the democratisation of mobility. 21.5 million cars were sold. Then the New Beetle arrived in 1998. It introduced a new automotive feeling to the world and brought with it Beetle Mania. In 2010, the Final Edition completed the New Beetle series that had sold more than one million cars. And now? A look forward. The future of the most famous car in the world begins now. In a completely new generation. It’s The Beetle! And because 2012 VW Beetle call the globe their home, the new car is celebrating a transcontinental world debut – simultaneously in Shanghai, Berlin and New York .

2012 Volkswagen Beetle is an icon. This car tells a story. Only someone who knows its history could make a new generation of this Volkswagen a reality. The task ahead for the engineers was very clear. They had to develop a high-tech car that was still affordable, did not leave any stone unturned, integrated the communication technologies of our times and of course achieved the lowest environmental impact. It also had to be a car that places driving fun at the forefront. The new generation 2012 VW Beetle would have to be a very agile, dynamic performer, and the people who developed the Golf GTI would also be able to achieve this.

The most recognisable automotive design in the world. Coke bottle, iPhone, Ray Ban Aviator, Beetle – how does one reinvent a design that is so recognisable and independent? There is a clear answer to this: It is necessary to understand the product and the brand; then it works! Volkswagen Design Chief Walter de Silva (Group) and Klaus Bischoff (Volkswagen Brand) “understand” both and therefore they set this as the objective for the Beetle: “Design a new original!”

Challenge as a thrill. The team began its task under Bischoff’s guidance. The challenge of designing a new Volkswagen Beetle was inspiring. The designers knew that they wanted to develop the original Beetle profile more than on the 1998 New Beetle. They also made very dynamic proportions a high priority. An interesting aspect was that more than a few team members actually own their own air-cooled Beetles. It has also become a cult car among younger designers at Volkswagen. And that is how the final design of the 2011 Beetle came to be in Wolfsburg – a car of today as well as a design tribute to the automotive seed of an entire corporate group. And unmistakable indeed: If one were to take the first Beetle and the new Beetle and place them in a room together – shining light just over the roofs and viewing them from the side – one would see that the lines of the rear sections are nearly identical.