For years, Volkswagen made some of the best family cars and commercial vehicles in the world. The bestselling Type 1 Beetle and the incredible Type 2 van were responsible for transporting millions of people around the world. However, by the early 1960s, the luxury car sector began growing. Brands like BMW, Audi and Mercedes were raking in the big bucks from the upper echelons of car buyers. As such, Volkswagen was keen to capitalise on this growing sector.
In 1963, Volkswagen built a prototype for a luxury car. The prototype was titled the EA128, EA standing for Entwicklungsauftrag, meaning “development order” in German. While this car would not be a out-and-out luxury car, it would be wholly different to any of the other cars coming out of Wolfsburg, sharing none of the design cues from the Beetle or the Type 3.
The design of the prototype was unique, with a boxy and distinctive silhouette and a grille-less front end. At that time, the only engine Volkswagen had was the 4-cylinder boxer engine. While extremely reliable and economic, that engine wouldn’t have been a good fit for a large luxury car. As such, Volkswagen decided to use the 2-litre 6 cylinder from the then-new Porsche 901 (Later 911). With that powerful engine, and the stand-out designing, Volkswagen felt that they had a very good luxury car.
However, further research revealed a couple of faults with the prototype. On the engineering side of things, the engine wouldn’t work with the car, due to its nature of being designed for a rear-engined car. On the more financial side of things, VW found that with their predicted sale price, each car would be sold at a loss. As such, after just around 1500 kilometres of testing, executives decided to scrap the EA128 project.
While the EA128 was considered a failure, Volkswagen continued in its pursuit to create a luxury car. In 2002, Volkswagen would finally succeed in this pursuit, creating the Phaeton. They would then go on to create the bestselling Panamera for Porsche and the Mulsanne for Bentley, both incredible cars that may not have been created was it not for the EA128 from all that time ago.
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