Volkswagen

Volkswagen history

The Volkswagen Beetle is a project for a car for the people, a history with many dark sides that we do not highlight here. In 1947 the factory received an order from the Dutchman Ben Pon for 56 Beetles. Since then, Pon has been the Dutch Volkswagen importer. In 1950, Pon sketched a small commercial vehicle. That became the Transporter, the proverbial Volkswagen bus. So two iconic cars.

Until 1970, Volkswagen had a very incomplete range and the models that appeared until then were all variants of the Beetle, with an old-fashioned chassis and with the engine in the back. It was only with the arrival of the K70, an orphaned child of NSU that had passed away, that Volkswagen produced a modern passenger car. In 1972, the 15,07,034th Beetle rolled off the production line, breaking the Volkswagen Model T record. The Volkswagen Golf appeared in 1974, the Beetle remained in production in Europe until 1978.

Volkswagen took over Auto Union in 1964. Since the crisis of the 1930s, this consisted of DKW, Wanderer, Horch and Audi, but Volkswagen only used the name Audi. In 1969, Volkswagen also took over NSU and Audi and NSU were put into a separate division. Furthermore, Porsche, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti belong to the Volkswagen Group.