Germany 1950
I think it is only right that for those of us who love the VW Kombi, that we understand of where this emotive vehicle came from.
The birth of the VW Type II (Type I being the Beetle) arose after World War II when the British found themselves running the VW factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. Ben Pon, a Dutch VW importer, saw the motorised trolleys built using stripped down Beetle chassis and running gear taking parts around the vast factory in 1947.
He sketched a design for a beetle-based van, which looked rather like a box on wheels, after he was inspired by these rudimentary but ingenious vehicles. Heinz Nordhoff took on this idea a year later when he took over as chief executive of Volkswagen and the first VW van was launched at the Geneva Motor Show in November 1949.