VW Concept Cars: Creating Dream Machines

Car designing and dreaming—they go hand in hand. Every now and then, designers have to take out their crystal balls, gaze into uncharted territory and ask “what if?”

What if we created an all-electric Beetle? What if we made it a hardtop convertible? Oh, and while we’re at it, what if we updated the Volkswagen Microbus but gave it a zero-emissions electric powertrain?

The answer to all those “what ifs”? Concept cars—the dream machines that headline auto shows and generate all those “I want one!” reactions. Over the years, Volkswagen has arguably produced some of the coolest and most innovative concepts in the business.

Let’s turn back the clock to January 1994: Designers at the hip Volkswagen design studio in California dreamed up the Concept One, a fresh take on the classic VW Beetle. VW unveiled their creation at that year’s Detroit Auto Show, and it became an instant hit. Showgoers screamed, “Build it!” Volkswagen listened, and four years later the concept car went into production as the New Beetle.

“Concept cars are a vital ingredient in our design process at Volkswagen,” says Kevin Joostema, Manager of Product Marketing and Strategy for Volkswagen of America, Inc. “They let us test out ideas on the customer and get vital feedback before we decide whether or not to turn a concept—or maybe just an element of it—into production reality.”

During last year’s Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland, Volkswagen spotlighted its forward-thinking Bulli concept, which took an innovative look at the emblematic VW Microbus of the 1950s. But this reinvention is more robust, more compact—and it runs on electric power.

Then there was the hip, sporty E-Bugster concept, a zero-emissions pure-electric Beetle with a removable hardtop and convertible roof, which debuted at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January.

“Concept cars not only allow our designers to put forward fresh new ideas, they also allow customers, the media, even our own executives to tell us what they think,” Boldea says.

Courtesy of Volkswagen USA