Volkswagen

From Wikicompany

Volkswagen AG is a German automobile manufacturing company.

Volkswagen's second-largest market is China where its subsidiary, Volkswagen Group China is the largest foreign automaker.

Statistics

• Volkswagen employs about 336.000 people
• Volkswagen sells over 5 million vehicles annually
• Volkswagen has a worldwide marketshare of about 12% in the passenger car segment.
• Volkswagen produces, on average, over 21,500 vehicles on every working day.
• Volkswagen operates 45 manufacturing plants in 11 European countries and a further 7 in other countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa.
• The Volkswagen Group sells its vehicles in more than 150 countries.

Subsidiaries

Subsidiary automobile brands owned by Volkswagen:

• Volkswagen
• Audi
• Bentley
• Bugatti
• Lamborghini
• SEAT
• Skoda

History

The company was founded in 1937 as a public concern by the then Nazi government to sell the now legendary Volkswagen Beetle automobile.

After the Second World War in 1945, the British army took control of the bomb-shattered factory and restarted Beetle production for the difficult post-war years which Germany had to face. In 1948, the British Government handed the company back over to the German state, where it was managed by ex-Opel chief Heinrich Nordhoff.

In 1960, upon the floatation of part of the German federal government's stake in the company on the German stock market, its name became Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft.

The name was changed to Volkswagen AG on 4th July 1985, to reflect the company's increasing global diversification from its headquarters and main plant, the Volkswagenwerk in Wolfsburg, Germany. The corporation now goes by that name or occasionally 'Volkswagen Group' in non-German speaking markets, and is currently the third largest car-manufacturer in the world.