During the war only 640 Beetles were built. Production switched instead to the Kubėlwagen, a war type body placed on the original VW platform. The Kubėlwagen was the German equivalent of the American Jeep and proved almost as versatile, although it was produced in much smaller numbers.
The Kubėlwagen was able to stand up to the extreme heat of Africa and the equally harsh cold of the Soviet Union without modifications. A number of specialised body types were produced from this design including an amphibious vehicle and various four-wheel drive versions.
Wartime production at the KdF-Wagen was not limited to vehicles. BMW airplane parts, spares, heat stoves for the frigid Russian front, and V1 rockets were all built in large quantities, earning the factory a high priority for Allied bombing runs.
With the cessation of hostilities in 1945, KdF-Wagen officially became Volkswagen: "The People's Car". The British administration took over the running of this sector of Germany. Major Ivan Hurst of the Royal Electrical and Engineers was appointed to see if it was worth saving for reparations or, if not, to see if he could restart the company.
Rarely has a phoenix risen from the ashes and ruins in a more spectacular fashion than did Volkswagen following the devastation of World War Two. To go from a crushed company with over seventy-five percent of its factory destroyed, and ownership in doubt, to the largest European manufacturer and producer of the most popular car ever, is truly one of the most impressive feats of the twentieth century.
It was Ivan Hurst's drive for getting the show back on the road that was the spark that set the place rolling again. Beyond the internal difficulties of rebuilding the factory and determining leadership and ownership, raw materials were scarce, although labour was plentiful.
Hurst scrounged and scraped enough materials and parts to get a few cars into production and started a rebuilding program at the factory. By March 1946 the one thousandth Volkswagen was being driven off the production line.
By mid-1948, Volkswagen's factory was once again in full swing, and rolled out their 30,000th vehicle. Hurst helped to appoint Heinz Nordhoff as general manager and in 1949 the ownership of the company was transferred to the German government and then to the State of Lower Saxony.
One of Major Hurst's aspirations for VW included commercial vehicles and during his time with the company he had the shop produce prototype Beetle pickups and sedan deliverers which were used around the plant.
In 1948, at the instigation of Ben Pon (the Dutch VW distributor), Nordhoff initiated a project to develop a commercial delivery van based on Beetle mechanicals, and in 1950 the Transporter Type 2 Van was in production.
By 1950, Volkswagen was Germany's largest manufacturer, producing almost fifty percent of the country's automobiles. Nordhoff improved quality and expanded his product line offerings.
In the same year, when the one hundred thousandth vehicle had been built, Nordhoff looked to the export market to further sales of the vehicle. Beetles were being sold in Germany, Austria, Belgium and Holland, but Nordhoff could see vast sales possibilities in America.
He encouraged Ben Pon to take Volkswagen to America. Pon's trip was unproductive and he only sold one car. The following year, in New York, Max Hoffmann was appointed as the US importer, but after selling only 601 cars in two years, this arrangement was cancelled. Volkswagen tried again and in 1955 opened "Volkswagen of America" offices. Finally, America was ready to own VWs and more than thirty thousand vehicles were sold. By this time, Volkswagen had built their one millionth car.
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