Volkswagen tries for more masculine look
BERLIN — Volkswagen unveiled a sportier design for the iconic Beetle Monday to woo American men and broaden the appeal of the “Love Bug” as VW aims to triple U.S. sales.
The revamped version is wider, has a flatter roofline and features a roomier interior, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based automaker said. The overhauled model comes with a rear spoiler for the 160-horsepower and 200-horsepower versions.
The updated Beetle “will be so much more masculine,” Soh Weiming, VW’s China sales chief, said in an interview in Shanghai. “It will open up a new customer group for us. The model we have right now is a little bit more feminine but the new car is exactly the opposite.”
The Beetle’s buyers last year were more than 60 percent female, the highest rate for any vehicle sold in the U.S., according to automotive website truecar.com. VW brought back the car in 1998 to capitalize on Americans’ nostalgia for the model, which was featured in films including the Walt Disney “The Love Bug” comedy series as the main character Herbie.
Europe’s biggest automaker unveiled the redesigned Beetle at events in Shanghai, New York and Berlin. China, the United States and Germany are the model’s largest markets. This is the Beetle’s second overhaul since the original was developed and built during the 1930s in Nazi Germany.
“The Beetle was anything but a very masculine car,” said Kevin Tynan, an automotive analyst at Bloomberg Industries. “It fostered the perception in the U.S. of VW as a more feminine brand. VW has some work to do to improve its appeal with male consumers and it looks as if they’re now addressing the issue.”
The redesigned car, priced at about $24,360 in Germany, can be ordered with a sound system by Fender Musical Instruments Corp., fitted with adjustable ambience lighting.
The Beetle’s U.S. buyers were 61 percent female in 2010. Nissan’s Rogue followed at 56 percent and VW’s Eos convertible was third at 55 percent, according to truecar.com. The VW brand doesn’t have any models ranked in the top 20 models among male purchasers in the U.S.
VW last November showed a silhouette of the revamped Beetle on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show and gave 275 of the cars away to her studio audience to stoke interest in the model. The new version, which hits American showrooms in September, may boost U.S. sales to 30,000 Beetles next year from 20,000 in 2011, according to automotive website Edmunds.com. The model will be rolled out in Europe starting in October and reach Asian dealers by February, VW said.
“The Beetle is unique and its real value goes far beyond mere sales,” said Jeremy Anwyl, head of Edmunds.com. “The trick for the car is to connect with younger drivers. It entails the option of creating lifetime customers for VW.”
A range of four-cylinder engines allow the Beetle to reach a maximum speed of 141 miles per hour.
The Beetle’s success is key to VW’s plan to boost U.S. sales to 1 million vehicles, including 200,000 for the Audi unit, by 2018. The VW brand and Audi delivered about 360,000 cars in the U.S. in 2010. VW, which will open a U.S. plant next month in Chattanooga, Tennessee, has a broader goal of surpassing Toyota Motor Corp. as the world’s largest carmaker.
“VW has subscribed to an ambitious growth agenda and progress in the U.S. is absolutely indispensable,” said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. “I’m not convinced though that retro-styling is the best way forward.”