Das Auto
Volkswagen
Tagline
Net Worth
$100,000,000,000
Started in (City)
28/05/1937
Started in (Country)
Berlin, Germany
Incorporation Date
28th December, 1937
Bankruptcy Date
-
Founders
- German Labour Front
About
Volkswagen is a car company from Germany. The word Volkswagen means "People’s car" in German. Its headquarters are in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. It was started in the 1930s, at the request of the country’s leader, Adolf Hitler, to produce a car designed by Ferdinand Porsche. It is the flagship marque of the Volkswagen Group, the largest automaker by worldwide sales in 2016 and 2017. The group’s biggest market is in China, which delivers 40% of its sales and profits.
Some of Volkswagen’s popular cars are the Golf, Jetta, Polo, Beetle and the Passat. VW’s as they are commonly known, have also entered the off-road segment with cars like the Touareg, and the commercial segment with the Touran. VW’s 21st anniversary since the Golf 1 went on sale in the 1980s. Since its birth, VW has sold over 315,000 units of Golf 1 alone. 2006 saw the entry of the fifth generation of the Golf. The flagbearer - the GTI - is powered by a 147Kw 2.0l 4 cylinder which is a turbocharged engine, with VW DSG and FSI technology. The Golf GTI has evolved a long way since the 80’s but the fifth-generation GTI is criticised by some as it does not live up to the expectations and standards set by the legendary Mk1 GTI, which was fitted with a 1600, 8 valve motor.
Beginning
In the 1930s Adolf Hitler was looking for someone who could make a cheap car that the common German worker could afford. At the same time, Ferdinand Porsche had been working for years on a cheap car that could hold a family and would drive like a real car, not a microcar. He had already designed and built small cars with rear engines and shaped like a beetle. At this time, owning a car in Germany was something only for the rich people, and most car companies were not interested in making a low-cost car. Porsche’s company, also called Porsche, only made designs for others at that time. So Porsche could not find anyone to make the small car that he wanted.
Though Hitler never learned to drive, he was very interested in cars. Hitler wanted the car to hold four people. It was to be cooled by oil instead of water. The car needed to be able to travel at least 100 km/h, or about 60 mph, and use no more than 7 litres of gasoline for 100 kilometres. The car companies in Germany at the time didn’t want to make this new low-cost car, so Hitler formed a new company, run by the government. The first name given to the car was "KdF-Wagen." "KdF" stood for Kraft Durch Freude, or "Strength through Joy." Some were made, but by the time the factory was finished in 1938, World War II started. The factory then built jeep-like cars for the German military instead.
After the war, people from the United Kingdom and the United States reopened the factory and started making cars again. The factory was in ruins from the war and could only make a few cars at a time. The British military was in charge of this section of Germany. At first, they tried to find another car company to rebuild the factory. Henry Ford was offered the company for free. After looking it over, his adviser said "Mr Ford, what we are being offered here is not worth a damn!" So the Volkswagen company went ahead by itself to make the car. The man who led the Volkswagen company during this time was Heinz Nordhoff.
At first, they only made one type of car, the Volkswagen Beetle. In 1950, the Type 2 (the bus) was introduced, also built with an engine in the back of the vehicle. The cars became popular and well-known all over the world. The Beetle later became one of the best selling cars in history. It was built many years afterwards in factories in Germany, Brazil and Mexico.
The last original Volkswagen Beetle to be built was built in Mexico. It was built in July of 2003. Volkswagen has a new car called the "New Beetle." which began selling in 1997, It looks like the old car, but is built quite differently. It is faster, safer, and has an engine in the front, not the back, and is water-cooled (using a radiator). It is much more suited to today's modern world in terms of design and security.
From 1948, Volkswagen became an important element, symbolically and economically, of West German regeneration. Heinrich Nordhoff (1899–1968), a former senior manager at Opel who had overseen civilian and military vehicle production in the 1930s and 1940s, was recruited to run the factory in 1948. In 1949, Major Hirst left the company—now re-formed as a trust controlled by the West German government and government of the State of Lower Saxony. The "Beetle" sedan or "peoples’ car" Volkswagen is the Type 1. Apart from the introduction of the Volkswagen Type 2 commercial vehicle, and the VW Karmann Ghia sports car, Nordhoff pursued the one-model policy until shortly before his death in 1968.
Volkswagens were first exhibited and sold in the United States in 1949 but sold only two units in America that first year. On entry to the U.S. market, the VW was briefly sold as a Victory Wagon. Volkswagen of America was formed in April 1955 to standardize sales and service in the United States. Production of the Type 1 Volkswagen Beetle increased dramatically over the years, the total reaching one million in 1955. The UK’s first official Volkswagen Importer, Colborne Garages of Ripley, Surrey, started with parts for the models brought home by soldiers returning from Germany. On 22 August 1960, Volkswagenwerk GmbH was renamed to Volkswagenwerk AG. Sales soared throughout the 1960s, peaking at the end of the decade thanks in part to the famous advertising campaigns by New York advertising agency Doyle, Dane Bernbach. Led by art director Helmut Krone, and copywriters Julian Koenig and Bob Levinson, Volkswagen advertisements became as popular as the car, using crisp layouts and witty copy to lure the younger, sophisticated consumers with whom the car became associated. Even though it was almost universally known as the Beetle, it was never officially labelled as such by the manufacturer, instead referred to as the Type 1.
Road to Success
Volkswagen entered the supermini market in 1975 with the Volkswagen Polo, a stylish and spacious three-door hatchback designed by Bertone. It was a strong seller in West Germany and most of the rest of Western Europe, being one of the first foreign small cars to prove popular in Britain. It had started in 1974 as the Audi 50, which was only available in certain markets and was less popular. The Polo entered a market sector already being dominated by the Fiat 127 and Renault 5, and which before long would also include the Austin Metro and Ford Fiesta.
By late 1972, Volkswagen had decided to cancel the nearly finished type 266, a project for a mid-engined car to replace the Beetle and to focus on front-wheel-drive, water-cooled cars. Rudolf Leiding recently made head of Volkswagen, cited noise, heat, and servicing problems with the mid-engine layout, as well as the difficulty of making it a station wagon. In 1973, Volkswagen introduced the military-themed Type 181, or "Trekker" in Europe, "Thing" in America, recalling the wartime Type 82. The military version was produced for the NATO-era German Army during the Cold War years of 1970 to 1979. The U.S version only sold for two years, 1973 and 1974.
In 1981, the second-generation Polo launched as a hatchback (resembling a small estate car). In 1983 the range was expanded, with the introduction of a Coupe (similar to a conventional hatchback), and the Classic. The Polo’s practicality, despite the lack of a five-door version, helped ensure even stronger sales than its predecessor. It continued to sell well after a makeover in 1990, finally being replaced by an all-new version in 1994. Also arriving in 1981 were the second generation of the larger Passat and a second generation of the Volkswagen Scirocco coupe.
In 1983 the MK2 Golf was launched. At the beginning of 1988, the third generation Passat was the next major car launch and Volkswagen did not produce a hatchback version of this Passat, despite the rising popularity of the hatchback body style throughout Europe. Just after launching the B3 Passat, Volkswagen launched the Corrado, analogous to the Scirocco, although the Scirocco remained in production until 1992; the third generation of Scirocco was in production 2008-17.
Although the car was becoming outdated, during the 1960s and early 1970s, American exports, innovative advertising, and a growing reputation for reliability helped production figures surpass the levels of the previous record-holder, the Ford Model T. On 17 February 1972, the 15,007,034th Beetle was sold. Volkswagen could now claim the world production record for the most-produced, single make of car in history. By 1973, total production was over 16 million.
First in the series was the Volkswagen Passat (Dasher in the US), introduced in 1973, a fastback version of the Audi 80, using much identical body and mechanical parts. Estate/wagon versions were available in many markets. In Europe, the estate/wagon version dominated market share for many years.
In spring 1974, the Scirocco followed. The coupe was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. Based on the platform of the not yet released Golf, it was built at Karmann due to capacity constraints at Volkswagen. The pivotal model emerged as the Volkswagen Golf in 1974, marketed in the United States and Canada as the Rabbit for the 1st generation (1975–1985) and 5th generation (2006–2009). Its angular styling was designed by the Italian Giorgetto Giugiaro. Its design followed trends for small family cars set by the 1959 Mini – the Golf had a transversely mounted, water-cooled engine in the front, driving the front wheels, and had a hatchback, a format that has dominated the market segment ever since. Beetle production at Wolfsburg ended with the Golf’s introduction. It continued in smaller numbers at other German factories (Hanover and Emden) until 1978, but mainstream production shifted to Brazil and Mexico.
In 1975, the Volkswagen Polo followed. It was a re-badged Audi 50, which was soon discontinued in 1978. The Polo became the base of the Volkswagen Derby, which was introduced in 1977. The Derby was a three-box design of the Polo. After a second model generation, the Derby was discontinued in 1985, although the body style lived on in the form of the polo classic/polo saloon until 1991.
Challenges
In the 1980s, Volkswagen’s sales in the United States and Canada fell dramatically, despite the success of models like the Golf elsewhere. Sales in the United States were 293,595 in 1980, but by 1984 they were down to 177,709. The introduction of the second-generation Golf, GTI and Jetta models helped Volkswagen briefly in North America. Motor Trend named the GTI its Car of the Year for 1985, and Volkswagen rose in the J.D. Power buyer satisfaction ratings to eighth place in 1985, up from 22nd a year earlier. VW’s American sales broke 200,000 in 1985 and 1986 before resuming the downward trend from earlier in the decade. Chairman Carl Hahn decided to expand the company elsewhere (mostly in developing countries), and the New Stanton, Pennsylvania factory closed on 14 July 1988. Meanwhile, four years after signing a cooperation agreement with the Spanish car maker SEAT in 1982, Hahn expanded the company by purchasing a majority share of SEAT up to 75% by the end of 1986, which VW bought outright in 1990. On 4 July 1985, Volkswagenwerk AG was renamed to Volkswagen AG.
In November 2016, Volkswagen and its labour unions agreed to reduce the workforce by 30,000 people until 2021 as a result of the costs from the violations. However, 9,000 new jobs would come by producing more electric cars. Volkswagen also announced plans to become the world leader in electric cars, producing 1 million VW-EVs by 2025 and 3 million by the group, and a VW manager stated that its diesel cars would not become available in the United States.
In 2020 Volkswagen released a commercial that contained references to colonialism and appeared to show a racial slur. When initially faced with criticism the company stated that the "origin of the people depicted is irrelevant." When they faced an additional backlash from their response the company stated "We distance ourselves from this and apologize."
Failures
In 1974 Volkswagen paid a $120,000 fine to settle a complaint filed by the Environmental Protection Agency over the use of so-called "defeat devices" that disabled certain pollution-control systems. The complaint said the use of the devices violated the U.S. Clean Air Act.
In 2011, Greenpeace began criticising Volkswagen’s opposition to legislation requiring tighter controls on CO2 emissions and energy efficiency and launched an advertising campaign parodying VW’s series of Star Wars-based commercials.
In 2013, the Volkswagen XL1 became the most fuel-efficient production car in the world, with a claimed combined fuel consumption of 261 mpg (0.90-liter/100 km). Driving style has had a huge impact on this result – "normal" driving produces mileage in the 120 mpg range (1.96-liter/100 km). The model year 2017 VW vehicles sold in the US average 26.5 mpgUS, about 6% better than the average for all manufacturers. For comparison among major automakers, Honda leads at 29.4 mpgUS while FCA, the owner of Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Fiat, and Dodge brands, lagged at 21.2 mpgUS.
In March 2016, the US Federal Trade Commission sued Volkswagen for false advertising, because Volkswagen’s "clean diesel" vehicles were less environmentally friendly than advertised.
Achievements
- Volkswagen was named the fourth most influential car of the 20th century in the 1999 Car of the Century competition, for its Volkswagen Type 1 "Beetle" model. It trailed only the Ford Model T, BMC Mini, and Citroën DS.
- Volkswagen Motorsport won the World Rally Championship with Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia four years in a row from 2013 to 2016 in the Volkswagen Polo R WRC.
- Volkswagen won the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Dakar Rally, held in South America.
Subsidies
- Audi
- Skoda
- Seat
- Porsche
- Lamborghini
- Bentley Motors
- Bugatti
- Volkswagen Group Canada
CEOs
- Herbert Diess