Just a few days ago the very last Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line at the automaker’s Puebla, Mexico factory, where it was produced since the rollout of the New Beetle. The Denim Blue coupe that closed an important chapter in VW history will probably be the last gas-engined Beetle, but not the last-ever Beetle. Rumors of an upcoming Beetle-shaped electric hatch, as part of Volkswagen’s wave of ID-badged electric cars using the MEB platform, have swirled around Wolfsburg for months after the company greenlit the Microbus-styled ID Buzz, due on sale in 2022. VW will have no shortage of electric hatchbacks very soon thanks to the MEB platform, including entries from Skoda and SEAT, so producing a retro-styled electric Beetle should not pose a major undertaking. The vehicle that will take the Beetle’s place at the factory will also be headed to the U.S., as VW starts production of a compact crossover named Tarek, Bloomberg reports, which will be positioned below the Tiguan. The CEO of Volkswagen Mexico confirmed the plans on the same day as the last Beetle rolled off the assembly line. What do we know about the Tarek so far? For one thing, a version of this model is already in production in China under the name Tharu, Bloomberg notes. Sharing the MQB platform with the Tiguan and the much larger Atlas, the Tharu is offered with very small engines in China: a 1.2-liter is the base unit, a 1.4-liter is the middle option, while a… [Read full story]
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