VW boss hints at next-gen Beetle

Posted Thu Feb 7 2008 9:05 AM by Viknesh Vijayenthiran

Volkswagen’s new Beetle has been on the market now for just on ten years and has enjoyed relatively strong sales despite the lack of significant changes during its life. More than one million new Beetles have been built at VW’s Puebla plant in Mexico and it looks like developers have even more ambitious plans for the next-gen model, which is due to arrive in 2010.

Speaking with Automotive News, VW boss Martin Winterkorn confirmed that a successor was currently being developed and that it would likely be manufactured once again in Mexico, although he didn’t rule out the possibility of it being built elsewhere. Winterkorn was actually in Puebla to celebrate production of the plant’s seventh million vehicle. He also used the opportunity to announce that $1 billion would be invested in the site over the next three years.

Not much is known about the next Beetle except that it will share a platform with the Mark VI Golf and will be slightly larger than the current car. Final styling will be handled by a Californian team but engineering work will be completed in Germany. Once again both coupe and roadster variants will be on offer, although there are rumors of new hatch and SUV versions making production as well.

Reader Comments

Thu Feb 7 2008 2:00 PM
Gus says

Hatch and SUV beetle? Gawd...
Thu Feb 7 2008 6:05 PM
chris says

you mean its considered a sedan and not a hatch? interesting. SUV? sure why not. i'm thinking the small CUV's are going to be the next generation station wagon. think about it... it used to be the volvo wagons, then the taurus wagon, and the focus wagon.. so why not a much of smaller CUV's?

I've said it before, i like smaller vehicles and at some point i wont want to crawl into my focus any more. so i'm going to want a small crossover. something thats small, but chunky and muscular.. and tall.. so that my knees dont quit on me.

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