Looking back to the future. 15 years of certified environmental ...

Integrated environmental protection –
right from the start.
The Technical Development department at Volkswagen has consistently pursued
and implemented environmental protection since the early 1990s. On the next few
pages we review some of the outstanding models that highlight the department’s
milestone achievements.
Volkswagen has a long tradition of environmental protection.
The Beetle was already ahead of the times, with an average
fuel consumption of only 7.5 litres per 100 kilometres, a revolutionary
figure at the time for such a powerful, comfortable car.
The Beetle owed its marked economy to its aerodynamic body,
well-thought-out lightweight design and efficient engine. As
such, in terms of efficiency the Beetle set the standard for all
the models that were to follow it.
The legitimate successor to the Beetle was the Golf, which
made its debut in 1974. Thanks not least to its environmental
properties and economy, the Golf became one of the most
Photo: Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft
18
Looking back to the future
successful models ever, and has remained so to this day.
When the third-generation Golf was launched in the early
1990s, environmental protection was fast becoming a top
management priority at Volkswagen and central environmental
management structures were introduced. Since then, one
of the main functions of environmental management has been
to ensure that the findings of environmental research are put
into practice in the production sector. In what follows, a selection
of the Technical Development department’s product design
and environmental management milestones spotlight the
specific measures that have helped reach that objective.
A streamlined steel body, torsion bar
suspension, a rear-mounted engine that
was both robust and economical and
rear-wheel drive were the key features of
a model that was to prove revolutionary
and timeless. Volkswagen’s Beetle saloon
not only broke new ground in terms of
lightweight design but was also an economical
car with an average consumption
of 7.5 litres per 100 kilometres. From
1938 to 2003, more than 21.5 million
Beetles were sold worldwide. For many
years, the Beetle was the world’s bestselling
model.