When it was initially conceptualized, the Beetle was named the ‘Volkswagen’, or the people’s car. It was supposed to be the car for the German family, affordable but not made cheaply, practical but not too big and reliable but not too slow. Eventually, the car that was launched became extremely successful, so successful in fact, that by 1955, Volkswagen produced the 1 millionth Beetle.
Today, this may seem like a small landmark, but in 1955, this was no mean feat. You see, nowadays almost everyone we know has a car. There are probably ten to twenty cars parked on your street right now while you are reading this.
However, nearly seventy years ago, very few cars sold in huge numbers, as not many people had the kind of money required to buy a car. As such, an occasion like that had to be marked by a special event. As such, the bigwigs at Volkswagen decided to mark this occasion by cementing the 1 millionth production of their signature model in automotive history.
The millionth Beetle was not too dissimilar to the standard Beetle, at least technically. But on the surface was where this beauty showed off its style. The entire body was gold-plated, while many of the bumpers and windowsills were bejewelled with diamonds. The car was then paraded off the assembly line, much to the delight of all of the Wolfsburg factory workers, who worked hard every day to deliver these cars to anticipating customers.
The car then went on a tour of Germany and was proudly displayed in many of the country’s biggest cities, before coming to rest at the Wolfsburg headquarters. The car now lives in the Volkswagen Museum in Wolfsburg, a sign of industrial excellence.
This signature landmark was not the high point, however. From 1955 onwards, the Beetle was produced nearly 20 times over, with two major ends in its production. In Europe and the rest of the world (Except South America), the Beetle ended production in 1980, with over 15 million cars produced. /in Brazil, the Beetle lived on until 2003, when production was finally ended. In total, over 21 million Beetles were produced. This made it, at the time, the most mass-produced car of all time, a list on which it currently sits second.
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