The first VW camper van was launched at the Geneva Motor Show in November 1949 and the rest is all great vw campervan history! Believe it or not, The Type 2 Camper Van had humble beginnings. It was created to carry car parts around a humongous VW factory in Britain. Before its invention, manufacturers used stripped down VW Beetles for this task. In 1947, a Dutch VW importer, by the name of Ben Pon, came up with an idea for a van based on the Beetle. A mere two years later, the concept (an alternative to a cart and horse) was released at Geneva Motor. Out of this concept, the first VW camper van was born. Over the next few years, Volkswagen expanded on this concept and came up with almost a 100 different body combinations with a variety of uses including the camper van, pick-ups, ambulances, fire engines, and more. And we made a hat!