The Volkswagen Iltis was the final Jeep-type vehicle produced by Volkswagen, coming from a long line of military vehicles produced by Volkswagen-beginning with the Kubelwagen, Schwimmwagen, Type 181/Thing; and the Porsche Jagdwagen.

The Volkswagen Iltis is, in many ways; a Golf adapted into a Jeep-type vehicle.

The Iltis’s 4-wheel-drive system was later transplanted into Audi models as the original Quattro all-wheel-drive system.

The idea to transplant Iltis’s 4-wheel-drive system into an Audi passenger car came in 1977, and it was the brainchild of Audi’s chassis engineer, Jörg Bensinger. Bensinger had found  that the Iltis could outperform any other vehicle in snow, no matter how powerful. Bensinger’s idea was to start developing an Audi 80 variant in co-operation with Volkswagen/Audi’s Director of Pre-Development, Walter Treser.

The Mercedes-Benz Gelandewagen was the other contender for the German military’s proposal for the latest Jeep-type vehicle in the late 1970’s. Both vehicles were as equally competent off-road, but the Iltis had a lower asking price per unit than the Gelandewagen did. So the contact was awarded by the German military to Volkswagen.

In the civilian world, cost was the complete opposite for the Iltis and the Gelandewagen. A limited amount of Iltises were produced for the civilian market, all of which were very expensive and out of reach for most European consumers; while the 460 Gelandewagen was reasonably priced for the average European consumer.

The Belgian military was one of many militaries that had purchased the Iltis. Pictured below is one transporting King Albert II during Belgian National Day.

A video about the Iltis: