VW to end making iconic Beetle next year

DETROIT - Volkswagen said on Thursday it would stop producing its Beetle compact car in 2019, ending a model that looked back to the 1960s counterculture as the automaker prepares for a leap toward a future of mass-market electric cars.

The original VW Beetle was introduced in Germany in 1938 and came to the United States 11 years later, where it became a symbol of utilitarian transportation.

In the 1960s, the Beetle was a small-is-beautiful icon of the postwar baby boom generation. Volkswagen discontinued US sales of the "bug" in 1979, but continued production for Mexico and Latin America.