The Volkswagen Beetle – one of the world’s bestselling cars of all time – was born in Germany and then reproduced in many different countries, including Malaysia. Although the gigantic Wolfsburg plant that had been set up to make the car could produce thousands each month, it also made sense to assemble in markets with potential for growth using the CKD (completely knocked-down) approach.
In the case of Malaysia, Champion Motors (an Inchcape company) had been importing Beetles from the 1950s and in the early 1960s, when the Malaysian government invited automakers to set up factories to assemble their cars locally, plans were made to do so with the Beetle. Volkswagen was one of 17 automakers that expressed interest in local assembly.
Champion Motors set up a plant under the name of Motor Investments (although some records show it as having been called the ‘Champion Motors assembly plant’) in the newly opened industrial estate near Batu Tiga in Shah Alam, Selangor. The plant began operations in 1967 and besides Volkswagen products, it also assembled cars from Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Vauxhall.
The Beetle obviously accounted for the largest volume in the early years and within the first 2 years, 10,000 units had been assembled. It would continue to be assembled until the mid-1970s when its popularity diminished rapidly with the affordable Japanese cars sweeping through the market.
The Champion Motors plant was renamed Assembly Services Sdn Bhd (ASSB) in 1975 and by then, Toyota cars had become the largest volume. When UMW acquired the Toyota franchise was in October 1982, it also took over the ASSB which was then the largest vehicle assembly plant in Malaysia.
As for Volkswagen, after Inchcape exited the market and Champion Motors ceased operations, Auto Dunia took over the German brand, along with Audi. While it sold modern Volkswagen models, it did not sell the original Beetle which ended production in Germany in the late 1970s but continued to be made in its original form in Mexico until 2003. Some of the original units were imported by a private importer called Syarikat Arshad during the 1970s.