Slide 1

The birth of Volkswagen-

 The Volkswagen was founded on 28 May 1937 by the German Labour Front and
the Beetle cars were designed.
 Initially, the Beetle was called the Kraft-durch-Freude-Wagen which meant
Strength Through Joy Car.
 Eventually, the Strength Through Joy Car was shortened to Volkswagen, in German it
meant the people’s car, as the name Strength Through Joy was too large.

The birth of Beetle-

1. In 1934 German leader Adolf Hitler
instructed designer Ferdinand
Porsche to create a car that could
transport a family of five at 100k/ph
2. The Beetle car was built with the
middle class in mind who wanted a
reliable and affordable car to move
around.
3. The middle class at those times
valued the qualities of reliability
and affordability more than the speed and design of cars.
4. The Beetle car was initially made available for 390 US dollars and its maximum
speed was around 100 km/h (62 mph).
5. Nearly 300,000 orders were received for the Beetle Cars.
6. The VW Beetle became the most-produced car in automotive history, with 40
million rolling off production lines between 1945 and 2003.
7. German families were offered the car in a savings plan, but war broke out before the
Beetle could become a fixture of Nazi family life.
8. The VW factory in Wolfsburg, West Germany began producing the car in earnest,
with the one-millionth rolling off the production line in 1955.
9. The cheap, friendly, easy-to-maintain Beetle became popular around the world,
with license production also taking place in Brazil, Mexico, and Australia.
10. In 1972, the Beetle became Mexico City's Minitaxi. Nearly 50,000 of the bright-
green-and-white Beetles plied their
trade until the last retired in 2012.
11. In 2003, the last edition of the original
Beetle rolled out of the factory in the
Mexican state of Puebla - nearly 60
years after the original. (VW)
12. The Beetle story doesn’t end there; since 1998, a new version of the Beetle based on
VW’s Golf has kept the spirit of the German classic alive.