What date did the last original Volkswagen Beetle roll off the production line?

The last original Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the production line on July 30, 2003.

The final car was built at Volkswagen’s Puebla plant in Mexico at 9:05 a.m. It was the last example of the original Type 1 design, ending a production run that had begun in the late 1930s and resumed on a large scale after World War II.

Volkswagen produced the final car as part of a special “Última Edición,” or “Final Edition,” series. The commemorative run consisted of 3,000 cars, helping turn the end of production into a carefully staged farewell rather than an ordinary factory shutdown.

By the time production ended, 21,529,464 original Beetles had been produced worldwide. The model’s 65-year production span was extraordinary, especially because its basic rear-engine, air-cooled layout and rounded shape changed relatively little. The newer New Beetle had already appeared in 1997, but it was a modern, front-engine design and not the same original Type 1 car.