Mothballed for the third time at the end of 2019, the Volkswagen Beetle is dead for good. Vague rumors claimed that the nameplate would return on an electric four-door model with a retro-inspired design, but the company’s top executive confirmed that it’s not coming back.
“I don’t think so, because there are certain vehicles that have had their day. It wouldn’t make sense to bring [the Beetle] back,” company CEO Thomas Schäfer told Autocar. “I wouldn’t say with 100% [certainty]. But, from where I stand right now, I wouldn’t consider it.”
As it stands, the ID. Buzz is set to remain the only torchbearer of Volkswagen’s visual heritage in the 2020s lineup. It’s on sale in Europe, where it’s offered in passenger- and cargo-carrying configurations, and a long-wheelbase model is due out in the United States for 2025.
Schäfer suggested that, broadly speaking, dusting off historic nameplates isn’t part of Volkswagen’s product plan. “It’s the same as Scirocco: it had its day, then there was a new model based on a reinterpretation. To do that again? I don’t think so. And going forward with balancing all of these technologies and the cost that is associated with it, you’ve got to invest money in the best possible place.”
Bringing back a nameplate and bringing back a car aren’t the same things. Ford once again sells a Puma in Europe, but it shares nothing more than a name with its predecessor; it’s a crossover, while the original Puma sold from 1997 to 2002 took the form of a small, front-wheel-drive coupe designed by Ian Callum. Volkswagen won’t build, say, a Scirocco-badged crossover just to bring the name back.
“There are examples in the auto industry at the moment where someone has taken a classic name and then put it on a car that’s not at all what it is … but I’m not mentioning names,” he said. Opel’s born-again Manta, which is due out in 2025 as a crossover, is another example.
Although the Beetle and the Scirocco aren’t coming back, some of the other popular nameplates in the brand’s portfolio are sticking around.
“We’ve decided we’re not going to throw away the traditional, successful names that have carried us for so long, that we’ve invested in for so long, like Golf and Tiguan. Why would you let them go?” Schäfer concluded. Volkswagen has previously confirmed that the ninth-generation Golf will switch to an electric drivetrain, meaning the current, eighth-generation model is the last version powered by a piston engine.
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