Volkswagen squishes the Beetle, ends production after 80 years

  • 15/09/2018

The Volkswagen Beetle will be ending production in 2019.

Slowing sales mean production at the last factory making the car, a single site in Mexico, will soon stop making the bug-shaped vehicle.

But lovers of the car are heartbroken at the prospect of facing the future without it.

"Losing the Beetle in production makes me feel like I lose a little bit of myself," Beetle enthusiast Marcel Horn told CBS News.

The car has a dark past, originally created on the orders of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1938. After World War II the Beetle went on to become one of the best-selling foreign made cars in the United States.

In the '60s it became popular with hippies, and in later years Disney popularised the car with movies like The Love Bug and Herbie: Fully Loaded, which both featured a sentient Beetle.

Sales were down more than 3 percent in the United States in 2017 with only 15,000 of the vehicles being sold. It's believed customers are moving towards SUVs.

So now the Beetle is nearing the end of its life, but fans are hoping for a reinvention one day - maybe even as an electric version.

Newshub.