The Volkswagen Beetle first went into production in 1938.
The car was developed from Ferdinand Porsche’s “people’s car” design, commissioned in Nazi Germany as an affordable, practical vehicle for ordinary families. The resulting Type 1 used a rear-mounted, air-cooled flat-four engine and a rounded body that later inspired the Beetle nickname.
Production began at the new Volkswagen factory in 1938, and early cars included the VW38 and VW39 pre-production batches. Civilian output was soon disrupted by the Second World War, when the factory concentrated on military-related vehicles and production needs rather than normal family-car sales.
That interruption explains why some accounts emphasize 1945, when postwar civilian production resumed under British supervision. However, 1938 is the standard answer for the beginning of Beetle production. The model ultimately remained in production until 2003, with the final cars built in Mexico.