<P> A handful of KdF - Wagens were produced, primarily for the Nazi elite from 1941 to 1944, as the Typ 60 . The factory also built the Kübelwagen (Typ 82), Schwimmwagen (Typ 166), and a handful of other variants, as Wehrmacht combat vehicles . It produced small numbers of Kommandeurswagen (Typ 87), with a Typ 1 body mounted on a four - wheel drive Schwimmwagen chassis; the fenders were widened to accommodate Kronprinz all - terrain tires (reminiscent of the later Baja Bugs). Kommandeurswagen were produced up to 1944, when all production was halted because of heavy damage to the factory from Allied air raids . Much of the essential equipment had already been moved to underground bunkers for protection, which let production resume quickly after hostilities ended . Due to gasoline shortages late in the war, a few "Holzbrenner" Beetles were built, powered by pyrolysis gas producers located under the front hood . </P> <P> In occupied Germany, the Allies followed the Morgenthau plan to remove all German war potential by complete or partial pastoralization . As part of this, in the Industrial plans for Germany, the rules for which industry Germany was to be allowed to retain were set out . German car production was set at a maximum of 10% of the 1936 car production numbers . </P> <P> Mass production of civilian VW cars did not start until post-war occupation . The Volkswagen factory was handed over by the Americans to British control in 1945; it was to be dismantled and shipped to Britain . Thankfully for Volkswagen, no British car manufacturer was interested in the factory; an official report included the phrases "the vehicle does not meet the fundamental technical requirement of a motor - car...it is quite unattractive to the average buyer...To build the car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise ." The factory survived by producing cars for the British Army instead . Allied dismantling policy changed in late 1946 to mid-1947, although heavy industry continued to be dismantled until 1951 . In March 1947, Herbert Hoover helped change policy by stating </P> <P> There is the illusion that the New Germany left after the annexations can be reduced to a "pastoral state". It cannot be done unless we exterminate or move 25,000,000 people out of it . </P>

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