BEETLE NAME FINALLY SET TO BE SQUASHED

On September 12, Volkswagen announced it would be ceasing production of its Beetle by July next year. This is, of course, the ‘new’ water-cooled and FWD Beetle built on the Golf floorpan that was introduced in 1997 – the last of the original air-cooled Beetles was made at VW’s Puebla plant in Mexico way back in 2003.

Emotional appeal was not enough to save the Beetle name though, falling sales in recent years (down 2.2 per cent in the first eight months of 2018) meaning that talk of replacing it with a revamped model or adding electric power trains have come to nothing. Instead, there will be two special editions on both coupé and convertible bodies – the Final Edition SE and Final Edition SEL – with special colour, trim and equipment options to mark the passing of an iconic name early next year.

However, there may yet be a new link between VW’s air- cooled classic past and its latest offerings when the company puts its I.D. BUZZ microbus concept into production. This is not expected to be ready until 2022, but when the concept was unveiled in 2017, the Chairman of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brands, Dr Herbert Diess and Dr Eckhard Scholz, claimed the vehicle was ‘...an important pillar in Volkswagen’s electric drive initiative and carries the Microbus driving feeling into the future. Along with a minibus version, we’ll also be offering an I.D. BUZZ Cargo variant for zero- emission delivery operations in a Level 3 vehicle that boasts a high degree of automated driving capability. It’s an ideal electric van concept, particularly for inner cities.’