The world bid farewell to The Beatles, whose appearance has remained unchanged for 60 years, but it is the best seller in the world. Su, France, Germany and Britain once fought for it.

Text | AI Finance and Economics Society Niu Geng

Edit | Zhang Shuo

On July 2019 10, Volkswagen's last beetle rolled off the assembly line in Puebla, Mexico. It will be exhibited in the Puebla Museum in Mexico, and it will become the permanent memory of this round car. Kurt Keoglio, CEO of Volkswagen North America, said: "It is hard to imagine a Volkswagen brand without the Beatles, but this day has finally arrived."

The BBC said that just as 1962 Beatles were rejected by record companies, he asserted that "the Beatles have no future in the entertainment industry". No one expected that the Beetle, which was considered ugly at that time, could surpass Ford to become the best-selling car in history. Since its birth, the Beetle has sold a total of 24 million vehicles, and it is also the record holder of the largest single car sales so far.

As a car, the Beetle carries too many cultural symbols: it witnessed the industrial rise of Germany after the war and became a symbol of the American hippie movement. The slogan of think small not only created a sales miracle, but also became a classic. The Beetle also made great contributions to Volkswagen/KLOC-0' s business recovery in the United States in the 1990s. Now that the relationship is getting old, this factory will give way to a more practical Tarek SUV.

Occupy Czechoslovakia for a car

"The Beatles is German history on four wheels." People describe the life of the Beatles like this.

1933 10 In October, Hitler came to power and promised that every German family would have milk and bread on the table and could afford a car. This is not easy for the Germans. At that time, there were only/kloc-0 cars for every 50 people in Germany, and most people could only afford motorcycles.

Hitler demanded that the car must be able to seat two adults and three children, with a top speed of 62 miles per hour, 42 miles per gallon of gasoline and an air-cooled engine. Ferdinand porsche, the founder of Porsche, issued a military order: 10 month to build a prototype car.

Porsche turned its attention to Tatra in Czechoslovakia, which was deeply loved by the Fuehrer. Hitler once said to Porsche at the dinner table: This is the car I want, and he drew a sketch himself. Based on this, Porsche established a production version of Volkswagen 38, which is very similar to Tatra T97, but the expected price is only 990 marks. This is equivalent to the average wage of German workers of 3 1 week, and the standard price of British Ford 100 is equivalent to the wage of British workers of 3 1 week.

The original name of Beetle is VW, which means "national car". Later, Volkswagen became the name of Audi ag and Volkswagen.

Germany with design drawings still needs to raise funds for production. The government began to implement a special savings plan called "Kraft durch Freude, KdF" to raise production funds from the whole people: each participant should buy at least 5 marks of stamps every week, put them on the "KdF-Wagen passbook", and then take the passbook to lead the car. This move finally helped the German government to raise 267 million marks.

Interestingly, Tartrat Motor Company later sued Volkswagen for infringing several design patents. Hitler directly invaded Czechoslovakia, took control of the factory in Tallat, and prohibited the relevant models from being publicly displayed at the auto show. It was not until 196 1 that Volkswagen paid 3 million marks to Tartrat to settle the matter.

The Beetle's factory plans to produce 6.5438+0.5 million vehicles a year, but the war is getting more and more fierce. Ferdinand porsche designed tiger tanks for the German army, and automobile factories were also used for military purposes. 1945 After the defeat of Germany, the founder and son of Porsche were taken to France, and the French government even proposed to make Porsche a French company and move the production of Beetle to France. But it was opposed by other French car companies.

Eventually the Allies occupied the Beetle Factory. 1945, British military officer Major Ivan Hurst believed that once the Beetle was put into production in peacetime, its attraction would definitely surpass that of Germany. The factory resumed production soon and returned it to the German government on 1949. Under the Marshall Plan, the factory introduced assembly line production, and in 1950, 654.38 million beetles were produced, which became an important part of Germany's post-war economic recovery.

"The most recognizable car in the world"

Beetles were not popular at first. 1945, a beetle was transported to Britain from the bombed German factory. According to the analysis of members of major British automobile manufacturers, "this kind of car is not attractive to ordinary buyers: it is ugly in appearance and noisy, and it is not worth putting into commercial production."

The BBC commented that just as Deco Records initially thought that "the Beetle had no future", the British did not expect the Beetle to become the best-selling car in the world.

1946, the first beetle rolled off the assembly line after the war. The German government chose to export this car to boost the German economy. By 1950, the Beetle had produced 65,438+million vehicles, and by 1955, it reached10 million vehicles.

But the truly iconic battle is in the American market. Helch NoDenhof, a former director of Opel who became a director of Volkswagen, thought the Beetle was small and round. Therefore, in cooperation with American advertising companies, the slogan of "seeing the big from the small" was printed on cheap black and white pages. The anti-American image of this big and sturdy car hits the nail on the head of the baby boomers' concept that "small is beautiful".

In addition, the appearance of Beetle never changed before 1960, which saved a lot of design fees. It was not until 1984 that the price broke through 10000 mark. The hippie generation likes to paint on the cheap and round body of the Beatles. 1967, hippie's "Summer of Love" movement, more than 65438+ ten thousand people gathered in San Francisco, and The Beatles was full of blocks.

The public just takes this opportunity to advertise: we do our thing. You do yours. By 1970, 80% of the 570,000 Beetles sold by Volkswagen in the United States were painted with patterns-this German "national car" became a symbol of American hippie spirit.

Beetle, which has not been upgraded for nearly 30 years, has a round shape and is very competitive. /kloc-in the 1960 s, people asked the public: Why not upgrade the appearance? Volkswagen responded with an egg with a picture of the beetle in the advertisement. 1978 When the Beetle stopped production in Germany, Volkswagen showed the egg again and wrote: We will keep this shape until the end.

It can be said that the bestseller of The Beetle is the history that this style was exported to global culture. 1972, the total output of Beetle surpassed Ford Model T with 15007034 and became the best-selling car in the world. Until 200 1, Mexico City's180,000 residents still use the green painted beetle with a white roof as a taxi.

The world bid farewell to The Beatles.

The most familiar beetle is actually the second generation beetle and the new beetle. It was not until 60 years later that this car was unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in 1994. It upgrades the air conditioner, electric rearview mirror, radio and stereo, ABS system side airbag, and most importantly, the shape is more rounded, and the front and rear of the car body are almost the same. Mainly aimed at women's sales, it set off a popular trend of "retro school".

But the positioning of the beetle determines that it is also going downhill. The second generation of Beetle is based on the PQ34 platform of Golf 4, and there is a saying in the market: "Beetle is a golf with a changed shell." Volkswagen launched Golf at 1974 and polo at 1975, which determined that the Beetle could not squeeze the market of these two cars by enlarging the body and strengthening the configuration.

20 1 1 The third generation iBeetle appeared at the Shanghai Auto Show. It leveled the roof, lengthened the front of the car, and was more sporty. The maximum power was upgraded from 105 horsepower to 200 horsepower. This generation of Beetles witnessed the decline of this series: in 20 17, the sales volume of Beetles in the United States was only 15 166, which was not as good as Jetta's 1/7.

In the China market, the Beetle, which has never been localized, is obviously not as competitive as golf and other models. In 20 18, China imported 5670 beetles, down 3 1% year-on-year. The price of 654.38+6,000 yuan to 250,000 yuan is enough for China consumers to choose a practical mid-level car. The new GB 6 emission standard has dealt a fatal blow to the beetles in China.

Some analysts believe that the Beetle's decision to stop production coincided with the public's admission of cheating in the diesel emission test. Hinrich, CEO of Volkswagen? Wobuken once said: As the company strengthens its electrification strategy, there is no plan to strengthen the Beetle at present.

But it does not rule out the possibility that the Beatles will be electrified in the future. 2017165438+10, Herbert Diss, CEO of Volkswagen, once said: "The next decision about electric vehicles depends on what kind of emotional concept we need." He explained that the so-called emotional concept includes minibus Microbus, Beetle, off-road vehicle model based on Beetle and bucket truck Kübelwagen.

Among them, I.D Buzz, an electric vehicle based on Volkswagen minibus Microbus, has decided to mass-produce in 2022. As another cultural symbol all over the world, the Beatles naturally belong to the "emotional concept". With the development of mass electrification, this circle may return to another place one day.