page_title: Volkswagen Golf Mk1
section_title: Replacing the Beetle; early efforts
hierarchical_section_title: Volkswagen Golf Mk1 / History / Replacing the Beetle; early efforts
caption_attribution_description: English: Volkswagen EA235 Prototype for a Beetle successor (1967) Towards the end of the 1960s as the appetite in key markets for the Beetle finally showed signs of becoming satisfied, there was intense speculation about a Beetle successor. Volkswagen themselves contributed a slightly unclear picture of approximately ten prototype Beetle successors in a compound to the press, while announcing that the picture showed some of the proposals that had been rejected.
context_page_description: The Volkswagen Golf Mk1 is the first generation of a small family car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen. It was noteworthy for signalling Volkswagen's shift of its major car lines from rear-wheel drive and rear-mounted air-cooled engines to front-wheel drive with front-mounted, water-cooled engines that were often transversely-mounted.
  Successor to Volkswagen's Beetle, the first generation Golf debuted in Europe in May 1974 with styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign.
context_section_description: Volkswagen began producing prototypes of possible Beetle replacements as far back as the early 1950s, and may have received design proposals from Porsche earlier than that. All of the internal projects' names started with "EA", standing for "Entwicklungsauftrag" and meaning "Development assignment". This work began during the tenure of Heinz Nordhoff, who was Director General of Volkswagen from 1948 to 1968.
  In 1952 the company built the EA41 in collaboration with Pininfarina. Essentially a rebodied Beetle, it never went into production.
  The first EA47 prototype appeared in 1953; at least 11 more EA47 variations were built over the next three years.
  By the mid- to late-1950s questions about the future of the Beetle began to be asked from outside the company. In 1957 an article with the title "Is the Volkswagen dated?" appeared in the West German magazine Stern. Two years later a similar headline was used in an article in Der Spiegel weekly news.
  In 1958 Porsche began a project numbered 728 for a revised Beetle. A few years later this became the Volkswagen EA53. This project continued for a number of years and produced several prototypes, with early ones having bodywork designed by Porsche and later ones styled by Ghia. The EA53 eventually led to the Type 3 model.
  In 1957 another design study, the EA97, was started. This exercise was larger than the Beetle, but kept the usual rear-mounted powertrain. 200 instances of this design were built. Styling varied, depending on whether a particular car's bodywork was done by VW or by Ghia. Some cars looks echo the later Type 3 cars, although the EA97 was smaller. The last EA97 was built in 1960. The EA97 would provide the basis for the Brasília model from Volkswagen do Brasil.
  The EA158 was a Beetle-successor project that started in 1962 with a unibody study by Pininfarina. As the project progressed the car grew in size and weight. Eventually it was rejected as a Beetle replacement, but served as the foundation of the subsequent 411 model.
  In 1967 another set of prototypes for possible Beetle replacements appeared in the form of the EA235 and EA235a.
  In 1968 the last internal prototype for a Beetle replacement built under Nordhoff's direction appeared. This car, designated EA276, was a small three-door hatchback with front-wheel drive using a front-mounted Volkswagen air-cooled engine. The EA276 program was cancelled after the death of Nordhoff, but did find new life as the inspiration for the Brazilian Gol.
  During Nordhoff's time VW did broaden their product line with the launch of the VW 1500 in 1961, and the 411 in 1968. In 1964 the company acquired control of the Auto Union group from Daimler-Benz and with it the technologies of the constituent companies of DKW, Horch, Audi and Wanderer.
caption: Volkswagen EA235 prototype (1967)
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