The two-door hatchback -- scheduled to go on sale in Europe in October and North America in September -- continues with the retro-inspired appearance of its predecessor.

The word "New" has been dropped from the car's name. The car is called the VW Beetle.

The separate fenders have tauter surfacing, crisper feature lines, squarer bumpers, altered detailing and a more rakish roofline.

The updated styling, developed under VW Group design boss Walter de' Silva and VW brand styling boss Klaus Bischoff, recalls many of the cues revealed on the Ragster concept introduced at the 2005 Detroit auto show.

Among the car's new features are LED daytime running lights, bi-xenon headlamps and larger wheels -- the latter of which can be specified up to 19 inches, VW says.

At 4278mm in length, 1808mm in width and 1486mm in height, the Beetle is 152 mm longer and 84 mm wider -- but 12 mm shorter than the outgoing model, which has accounted for more than 1 million sales globally since its introduction in 1998.

As with its predecessor, the Beetle will be built at Volkswagen's Puebla plant in Mexico alongside the Jetta. The two models share many parts of the same front-engined/front-wheel drive platform.

Along with the coupe revealed here officially for the first time, VW is already well-advanced on a convertible version of the next Beetle, which insiders say is likely to make an appearance at the Los Angeles auto show in November.

KEY FACTS
Name: Beetle
World premiere: April 18, 2011
Market launch: Asia, February 2012
Performance: 77 kW/105 hp to 147 kW/200 hp
Best fuel economy (Europe testing): 4.3 liters per 100km (1.6 TDI)
Debut of original Beetle: 1938
Debut of first-generation New Beetle: 1998
Models built: more than 22.5 million
Designers: Walter de' Silva, Klaus Bischoff, Marc Lichte, Chris Lesmana, Nisan Kucam, Tomasz Bachorski, Ingo Brückmann, Oona Scheepers, Susanne Gerken
Dimensions: 4278mm long, 1808mm wide, 1486mm tall, 2537mm wheel base
Trunk space: 310 liters