The History of the
Volkswagen MicroBus

The concept of the Volkswagen MicroBus first started when businessman Ben Pon traveled from Amersfoort in the Netherlands to the German town Minden in 1947. As Britain had taken control of the Volkswagen factory after World War II, Pon had an appointment with British authorities. Pon liked speaking to them, because he believed in the quality of Volkswagen's products. His plan was to become the Dutch Volkswagen importer. The results of Pon's visit were far above expectations. On 23 April, 1947, Ben Pon met with the British. He ran through his ideas about importing Volkswagens to the Netherlands. However, this day was a special day. He took his notebook and sketched an oblong transport vehicle. In fact, it was not much more then a soapbox on wheels with a cab in front and in the back, the engine. Nobody is really sure how his meeting with the British ended, but one thing was for sure, his idea was revolutionary. The simple vehicle had a large cargo space in a small area. According to Pon, the vehicle weighed 750 kilograms and could easily move 750 kilograms of cargo. Pon based his design on the Plattenwagen, a primitive vehicle resembling a push bike with a moped engine, used for internal transportation at the Volkswagen plant. Like the Plattenwagen, Pon's design had to be built on the chassis of a Beetle. At first, Pon's brilliant idea was left alone. But not for long. One year later, as Ben Pon and his brother Wijnand were the first official Volkswagen importers of the world, Pon received a message from Volkswagen. The message was from Heinrich Nordhoff, the new president of Volkswagen, and the technical manager Alfred Haesner. They decided to developed Ben Pon's idea. With that, Ben Pon became the inventor of the Volkswagen Transporter. His simple design of a transport-van was the blueprint for the future and until 1990, his design could be seen in all Volkswagen Transporters. In November of 1948, Volkswagen was rushing to develop the Type 29 transportwagen. They were busy drawing, welding, and bolting. After about one year, two cabins were finished. The two resemble each other in that they were both angular pieces of welded tin and had no curvature at all. This was due to limited manufacturing capabilities. After all, it is a lot easier for developers to work with curvatures than it is for the production facilities. A scale model of these two cabins was tested in the wind tunnel of the technical high school at Braunschweig. The results were disappointing. The wind resistance was much to high and had unwanted aerodynamic side effects. Then the high school went back to Pon's proposal. They constructed a model of an ascetically pleasing rounded cab that tapered into a cargo area. The air resistance was about 40% better then the original design! This futuristic aerodynamic shape was a dynamic step forward. Finally, the cabin developed at the high school in Braunschweig was used for the definitive prototype. With the installation of a Beetle engine, the prototype Type 29 took its first ride in April of 1949. Unfortunately, the chassis of the Beetle was to weak for the heavier body of the Type 29. And to make things worse, this test drive was without any cargo! Volkswagen's target production of the Type 29 was much stronger by the 1950's. Volkswagen decided to develop a brand new chassis for the Type 29: a so called "self-carried" chassis, unique for it's time. This was the start of the passenger car and van division. After testing, the brakes and the steering mechanism were improved. Also, the engine compartment was made smaller and more cargo space was made available. In October of 1949, the Type 29 was almost finished. The technical managing director said, "It is a van with a lot of possibilities. It is maneuverable, it has enough power uphill, it has low cost in use and maintenance. It is easy to load and reliable in summer and winter. It is a real Volkswagen...... A universal company van able to transport cargo everywhere in the world." By then, the only thing missing from the Transporter was a name. When the first production transporter was ready, its name was simply, "Type 2" where Type 1 was the Beetle. Later generations of Type 2's until 1990 were named T1, T2, T3, and T4, but commonly referred to as "Transporter." In fact, it wasn't until 1990 that the name "Transporter" was officially registered. In November of 1949, the bus was introduced at Volkswagen briefly to the press. It had everything except a name. But its name was soon to come......