The Volkswagen Beetle is about as lifeless as a automobile might be proper now. That’s just a little shocking, contemplating automakers are utilizing this huge second EVs are having to reintroduce some beloved names and ideas, and there was actually loads of love surrounding the Beetle for a really very long time. Perhaps not a lot anymore, given current feedback from Volkswagen’s chief government.

Thomas Schäfer indicated to Autocar in a narrative printed Monday that it’s unwise to carry out for a 3rd new Beetle:

Requested if the Volkswagen Beetle – one of many firm’s (and, certainly, the world’s) longest-serving nameplates – may make a comeback based mostly on this strict standards, he was categoric: “I don’t suppose so, as a result of there are specific automobiles which have had their day. It wouldn’t make sense to carry it again.

“I wouldn’t say with 100% [certainty]. However from the place I stand now, I wouldn’t take into account it. It’s the identical as Scirocco: it had its day, then there was a brand new mannequin based mostly on a reinterpretation. To do this once more? I don’t suppose so. And going ahead with balancing all these applied sciences and the fee that’s related to it, you’ve bought to take a position cash in the very best place.”

It’s onerous to argue with Schäfer’s level about making the most effective funding doable if you happen to take into account how the earlier Beetle was promoting concerning the time it was discontinued. Volkswagen moved 36,421 New Beetles within the U.S. in 2007, per information from CarFigures. In 2011, the primary 12 months of the last-gen Beetle (paradoxically sans the “New” adjective), VW bought 43,134. Fairly spectacular for a small automobile in America, although this was on the apex of pricey gasoline and Individuals giving a rattling about small vehicles. Come the ultimate full 12 months of manufacturing in 2018, that quantity sank again all the way down to 14,411.

Volkswagen cashed the New Beetle verify already. You possibly can’t do this greater than as soon as. Otherwise you can, however at a sure level it begins to look more and more determined and brings diminishing influence with each try. Schäfer and Volkswagen appear to have internalized this. Apart from, whereas the world may positive use extra (learn: any) low-cost EVs, that’s not what buyers are jazzed to purchase, and never what sells nicely. There’s a lot better potential for fulfillment (learn: margins) in one thing just like the ID.Buzz, a bigger multipurpose automobile that feeds the adventurous spirit each model is seizing nowadays.

In order that’s so lengthy and farewell to the Beetle, for now. Although if you happen to ask me, this goodbye received’t be without end. Electrical vehicles are costly to make now, however in the future they received’t be. Someday they’ll be skateboards with totally different hats. And when that day comes, it’d seem to be a reasonably simple win for Volkswagen to make an ID.Golf with a well-recognized, retro hat. That’s all of the outdated New Beetle actually ever was, anyway.