A Stylish Volkswagen Beetle Editorial Image

The need for a people`s car Volkswagen in German, its concept and its functional objectives were formulated by the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap, simple car to be mass-produced for his country`s new road network Reichsautobahn. Members of the National Socialist party, with an additional dues surcharge, were promised the first production, but the war shifted production to military vehicles instead. Lead engineer Ferdinand Porsche and his team took until 1938 to finalise the design. Béla Barényi is credited with first conceiving the original design for this car in 1925,[16]—notably by Mercedes-Benz, on their website, including his original technical drawing,[17][18]—five years before Porsche claimed to have done his initial version.[19] The influence on Porsche`s design of other contemporary cars, such as the Tatra V570, and the work of Josef Ganz remains a subject of dispute.[20] The result was the first Volkswagen, and one of the first rear-engined cars since the Brass Era. With 21,529,464 produced,[21] the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single platform ever made.