To say farewell to the Beetle after 70 years in production, Volkswagen produced this heartstring-tugging video, “The Last Mile.”   

First introduced to the public back in 1938, the Volkswagen Beetle (formally known as the Type 1) has been manufactured in more than a dozen countries, in three distinct design generations, and in more than 21 million copies. But now the company’s most important and successful product is finally going away, and this time for good, Volkswagen assures us. The German automaker will focus its future production on electric vehicles, pledging one million electrics per year by 2023.

So it’s no accident at all that in this lovely animated film, celebrating 70 years of Beetle history, a VW bug drives off into a landscape of wind turbines. But first, an elderly man rewinds his life with the Beetle as his frame of reference, from childhood to old age, while the Pro Musica Youth Chorus performs the Beatles’ “Let it Be.”  The final caption before the fadeout reads, “When one road ends, another begins.”  Volkswagen will build millions more cars, but none with the cultural impact of the Beetle. Video below.