Apple and VW have teamed up to form a strange partnership, creating an even stranger product: the iBeetle. We had to check it wasn’t April 1st before reading any further about the car, but it seems that the Apple-themed bug is very real and will go on sale early next year.
Unfortunately the car doesn’t feature the Apple symbol as a bonnet badge, nor does it run iOS in the touchscreen stereo. However, Volkswagen proudly says that it is “one of the first cars in the world to have a genuine integrative interface for the iPhone that was coordinated with Apple”
The iBeetle features a built-in iPhone dock on the dash and iBeetle branding in the door sills and badges on the car. Colour schemes in the stereo also match that of the iOS operating system, and VW has tweaked some of the controls to mimic Apple’s famous scroll wheel from the iPods of yesteryear.
There’s also an official app which allows the car to talk to your docked iPhone and vice versa. Details from your car such as the oil and coolant temperatures can be viewed in the app on your iPhone. There’s even a feature that shows a G-meter on the iPhone screen as you drive, which sounds pretty cool.
The app will also track distances and fuel economy, which we’re sure you’ll be able to do using the traditional dials, but is nonetheless cool to show off on your iPhone.
Pre-orders for the iBeetle will start in October of this year with the first models landing at VW dealerships early in 2014. Steve Jobs voice pack for the inbuilt satnav not included.