The van was mainly built for the purposes of the state-owned Deutsche Bundespost.

To lower costs, VW started off with the Karmann produced Beetle cabriolet (Type 15) as basis for the van due to its strength in build but later turned to the Karmann Ghia (Type 14) for basis as it was wider.

[1] It was agreed Franz Knobel & Sohn GmbH (later called Westfalia-Werke) would build the vehicles at the behest of VW.

Most cars were sold to the Deutsche Bundespost, but also to Swiss Post Offices (in an upgraded version with a more powerful 1.3 L engine, disc brakes and a block heater) and to the Lufthansa for apron use.

[1] Its official name was Volkswagen Type 147 Kleinlieferwagen (small van) but due to its funny and badly proportioned shape it was affectionately called Fridolin.