The 150 millionth car built by Volkswagen since production began some 72 years ago rolled off the assembly line on August 24, 2017. The anniversary vehicle – a Golf GTE – marks the start of the movement towards e-mobility and service provider for mobility in general.
Flashback: the day is overcast, rainclouds scud across the land, but here and there the sun is peeping through the clouds. It is the morning of August 5th, 1955, and a buzz of excitement banishes the morning chill. This is a day of celebration at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg. Almost ten years after production started, about 150,000 guests from home and abroad, celebrities and politicians, managers and employees, jostle through the streets of the city, heading for the factory – to celebrate the one millionth Volkswagen.
Dressed up in gold today
This is the decade of the economic miracle. The post-war era stands for a new beginning and economic momentum in the still young Federal Republic of Germany. This era is shaped so deeply by one particular car – the Volkswagen Beetle – that the paintwork of the anniversary model glitters in gold metallic. Hardly anyone around Managing Director Heinrich Nordhoff on that day could have looked so far into the future as to know that the Beetle would break several more records and celebrate several more anniversaries. All in all, 21 million of this much-loved small car were built before the production line was finally closed in Mexico in 2003.