Volkswagen’s last Beetle produced is displayed while people take photos of it during a ceremony to announce the end of the production of the VW Beetle after 21 years in the market, at the VW plant on July 10 2019 in Cuautlancingo, Mexico. Picture: GETTY IMAGES/HECTOR VIVAS
Serenaded by a mariachi band and surrounded by proud factory workers, the final units of the retro, rounded compact were celebrated at a VW plant in Mexico’s central Puebla state more than 80 years after the model was introduced in Germany. The last Beetles will be sold on Amazon in a move symbolising the company’s embrace of the future, Reiche said.
The “bug”, as the Beetle was nicknamed, debuted in 1938 as an affordable vehicle commissioned by Adolf Hitler to promote car ownership among Germans.