Brand Profile.
Volkswagen is a car manufacturing company based in Wolfsburg, Germany, and is the core company of the Volkswagen Group, one of the world's four largest car manufacturers.
Volks means "nation" in German, and Wagen means "car" in German, and the full name means "nation's car", so it is often abbreviated to The full name means "national car" and is therefore often abbreviated as "VW".
Volkswagen (German Volks Wagenwerk), meaning a car used by the general public, has had a number of changes in its logo history. The VW in the logo is the first letter in the full name. The logo consists of three "V's" made with the middle and index fingers, indicating that Volkswagen and its products will win - win - win.
History.
Hitler proposed in 1936 that a cheap "Volkswagen" be produced. He said that every German, or at least every German worker, should have a car of his own, just like in the United States. In the United States there was one car for every five people, in Germany there was one car for every 50 people, and workers commuted to work by bicycle or by bus. Hitler decreed that an economical car should be produced for ordinary people for only 990 marks. He personally intervened in the design, which was headed by Austrian engineer Boelcher.
On 28 March 1937, the company "Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH" was founded, which was subsequently renamed "Volkswagenwerk GmbH" on 16 September 1938. In 1938, Volkswagen started building a factory in present-day Wolfsburg, which was the world's largest car factory at the time. With a planned annual production capacity of 1.5 million vehicles for the production of new models designed by Ferdinand Porsche, production exceeded that of Ford Motor Company, the largest in the United States.
Brand groups.
The Group's passenger car business is divided into two main brands. Under the Group, Audi and Volkswagen each manage their own brand groups independently and are responsible for generating profits from them. Each brand has its own identity and operates autonomously, with products ranging from ultra-economical compact models (with a fuel consumption rate of just 3 litres/100 km) to luxury small cars.
The Audi brand group includes the four brands Audi, Seat, Lamborghini and Ducati.
The Volkswagen brand group comprises eight brands: Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, SKODA, Bentley and Bugatti, Porsche, SCANIA and MAN.
Corporate structure.
Volkswagen is a member of the Volkswagen Group , other group companies include.
1, Audi - the indigenous German car company, bought from Daimler-Benz in 1964.
2, NSU - bought by the Audi division of Volkswagen in 1969, the brand has not been used since 1977.
3, Seat - Spanish car company, major holder since 1987, bought in 1990
4, SKODA - Czech car company, bought in 1991.
5, Bentley - British luxury car manufacturer, bought from Vickers at the same time as the Rolls-Royce brand in 1998, but subsequently unable to build vehicles under the Rolls-Royce brand as the registered trademark rights were transferred to BMW.
6, Bugatti - French supercar manufacturer, bought in 1998.
7, Lamborghini - Italian supercar manufacturer, bought on 12 June 1998.
Between July 1998 and December 2002, the Bentley division of Volkswagen also sold vehicles under the Rolls-Royce brand under license from BMW, which had bought the brand by then. From 2003 onwards, only BMW-built vehicles can use the Rolls-Royce brand.
8, Porsche: On 24 July 2008, the European Union officially decided to approve the acquisition of the German Volkswagen Group by Porsche Holding AG. If the acquisition is successful, the combined company becomes the number one car company in Europe and one of the top three in the world. However, on its way to acquire VW, Porsche suddenly ran out of funds and was forced to suspend its acquisition of the Volkswagen Group. As a result, Volkswagen and Porsche merged, and Porsche became, in some nominal sense, a brand of VW. As recently as 5 July 2012, the German Volkswagen Group announced that it had agreed with Porsche to exchange €4.46 billion (approximately US$5.58 billion) for 50.1% of Porsche's share capital for 1 ordinary share. The transaction is scheduled to close in August. The entire stake in Porsche will be owned by VW.
