Volkswagen has decided¹ to squash its iconic Beetle².

 

大众决定砍掉标志性的甲壳虫。
 

 

The company's American unit announced Thursday that it would end global production of the third-generation bulbous bug³ in July of next year after offering two special editions for sale.

 

The compact Beetle was introduced in Germany in 1938 during the Nazi⁴ era and came to the U.S. 11 years later, where it became a symbol of utilitarian⁵ transportation often used by hippies. The iconic car sold for about 30 years before U.S. sales stopped in 1979. The last of the original bugs⁶ was produced in Puebla, Mexico, in 2003.

 

Volkswagen revived it in the U.S. in 1998 as a more modern "New Beetle," but it attracted mainly female buyers. The company revamped it for the 2012 model year in an effort to make it appeal to men, giving it a flatter roof, less bulbous shape, a bigger trunk and a navigation system. U.S. sales rose five-fold to nearly 29,000 in the first year, but tailed off after that. Last year VW sold only 8,627, according to Autodata Corp.

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