Volkswagen Boss Nixes Idea of a Future Electric Beetle

Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer has closed the door on the possibility of the Beetle name being attached to a future EV – this even as the company has said it will carry on with the Golf and Tiguan nameplates into the electric age.

The executive was pretty categorical about it as well, telling Autocar in an interview that “there are certain vehicles that have had their day. It wouldn’t make sense to bring it [the Beetle] back. I wouldn’t say with 100% [certainty]. But from where I stand now, I wouldn’t consider it. It’s the same as Scirocco: it had its day, then there was a new model based on a reinterpretation.”

The sales performances of the Golf, Tiguan and New Beetle models in recent years helps explain why the first two names will live on while the third won’t. The New Beetle was introduced in 2011 and while it did well initially, within a few years its sales had sunk considerably. Plus it’s not as if VW could reinvent the model yet again and call it what, the New NEW Beetle?

The other consideration that, for now, automakers are focused on producing higher-end, more expensive electric models, because that’s where demand is strongest and that’s where profit margins are the healthiest, giving manufacturers the capital they need to keep developing electric vehicles and technologies. The day is coming soon when it will become cheaper to develop and make more affordable EVS, and it’s then that it might – might – make sense to market a small car like the Beetle.

For now, though, Volkswagen has left no room for misinterpretation: the Beetle name is dead, for the foreseeable future.

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