T ny started with a simple idea, sketched on notebook sheet Dutch Ben Pon Volkswagen in 1947.
Inspired by the Plattenwagen a transport vehicle flatbed constructed from war, Pon imagined based on the beetle that is able to meet the needs of both business customers and particualares bus alike. The result was Transporter Type 2 which went into production March 8, 1950 .
Its production started in 1950 and only 10 units were produced daily. Five years later produced 80 per day.
Two years after sketch Pon, the first prototypes were completed. The first four Transporter shown by the then factory director Heinrich Nordhoff in 1949 included two trucks, a bus and a Kombi, a model with removable rear seats to transport both passengers and cargo.
Nordhoff was very aware of the needs of buyers in postwar Germany, knowing that they would be driven by customers who were not going to be treated gently, so made sure both out Simple and robust .
used a body mounted on a chassis in which the mechanics of the Beetle was based, with an air-cooled engine of 1131 cc producing modest 24 horsepower which were considered sufficient to carry up to eight passengers or 750 kilograms of cargo .
The Transporter became an instant success rapidly becoming an essential part of economic growth in postwar Germany. Production began at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg and was in limited principle 10 units per day but in the late 1950s improved plant efficiency allowed a total output of 8,001 units.
Four years after production began, Volkswagen Transporter built its 100,000th , and by then the product portfolio already been expanded to include 30 different variants for the German market.
After the huge demand, Wolfsburg and produced 80 units per day , which prompted the construction of a new factory in Hanover-Stoecken. The plant began construction in March 1955 and a year later the first unit left the assembly line .
Today, the Transporter now in its fifth generation, continuous production after 65 years the beginning of its history.