The Beetle May be on Borrowed Time

2016 Volkswagen Beetle Denim (Credit: © Volkswagen)

The rumormill is churning, and a new report from Autoline takes aim at the lovable Volkswagen Beetle as it claims that VW will kick the love bug to the curb at the end of 2018. If this report is accurate, then this would follow the 20 year anniversary of the New Beetle—though it dropped the “New” designation in the latest generation.

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So, why is VW supposedly eliminating the Bug? According to the report, VW is squashing it to make room for additional crossover production. While this seems shocking to cut such an icon in the VW lineup, keep in mind that Beetle sales are at their lowest point since 2011, selling just 3,319 units as of the end of March 2016. Add to this the fact that the Tiguan demand has picked up a bit (9,292 units sold so far in 2016) and you can see the reason for VW wanting to add more crossover bandwidth in the place of the Beetle.

One thing that pops into mind here is whether VW has plans to release a new crossover or simply up production of its existing models. While the Tiguan has seen a slight uptick in sales, the Touareg is one of the slowest-selling crossovers on the market, so it shouldn’t need additional bandwidth to meet demand. This leads me to believe that VW is looking to craft at least one new crossover that will be more of a volume seller than the Touareg is.

Road & Track reached out to VW for confirmation and was met with the standard “we don’t comment on media speculation” response.

I’ll continue to monitor this development and bring you more details when they become available.