Volkswagen is currently the largest car manufacturer in Europe and the second largest in the world.
Today, the German group, which once started with the production of ultra-budget "Beetles", offers products for any buyer. All this thanks to the unification of several brands under a single management.
The group's corporate portfolio includes eight legendary brands, most of which were in a difficult financial situation at one time. The companies were forced to make an alliance with the German manufacturer as it was a matter of their survival.
Volkswagen
The brand was founded by Adolf Hitler in 1938. Today it specializes in the mass segment. The most famous models: Golf, Passat, Polo, Tiguan.
Audi
Specializing in the premium segment. The brand was merged with Volkswagen in 1964. The most famous models: A4, A6, R8. In 1993, the management company Audi AG acquired the Ducati and Lamborghini brands, while remaining the property of Volkswagen.
Porsche
Specializes in premium and super premium segments. Although he was one of the founders of the first Volkswagen plant, the company he created joined the German giant only in 2007. Today the allies are each other's mutual shareholders. The most famous models: Cayenne, Panamera.
Bentley
In 1929, the English manufacturer of premium cars was sold to Rolls-Royce. In 1997, after the financial crisis, the Rolls-Royce brand was sold to BMW, and the Bentley brand went to Volkswagen. The most famous models: Continental GT, Flying Spur.
Skoda
This brand survived the German occupation, the Soviet era and was merged with Volkswagen in 1991. Change of strategic partner allowed to increase production by 5 times. Today Skoda specializes in the mass budget segment. The most famous models: Octavia, Fabia, Yeti.
SEAT
In 1986, due to financial difficulties, the Italian concern FIAT sold a 99.9% stake in the Spanish automaker to the Volkswagen Group. Today the brand specializes in the mass segment. The most famous models: Ibiza, Leon.
Lamborghini
At the turn of the 60-70s. of the last century, the Italian sports car manufacturer has changed hands several times. In 1998, the brand was bought by Audi AG and ended up under the wing of Volkswagen. The most famous models: Aventador, Huracan.
Bugatti
In 1956, this legendary brand actually ceased to exist. In the late 80s, the Italian entrepreneur Romano Artioli revived production and in 1998 sold the asset to the Volkswagen concern. Today the brand specializes in the super premium segment. The most famous model: Veyron.
What other companies belong to Volkswagen
- MAN– manufacturer of trucks, truck tractors, dump trucks, buses, hybrid and diesel engines;
- Scania– manufacturer of trucks, truck tractors, dump trucks, buses and diesel engines;
- Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles– manufacturer of commercial vehicles (buses, minibuses, tractors);
- Ducati Motor– motorcycle manufacturer;
- ItalDesign Giugiaro- car design studio
For some time there were rumors about Volkswagen's intention to buy the Italian-American alliance Fiat-Chrysler in order to become the world's largest automaker, but this deal did not take place.
The Volkswagen Group is one of the world's largest automotive companies. It currently consists of 12 companies:
Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Bentley, Man, Scania, Volkswagen commercial vehicles, Porsche and Ducati.
A few facts about each company that is part of the concern.
The beginning of the creation of the Volkswagen company was laid in October 1933 in Berlin, where Adolf Hitler announced the need to create a reliable and inexpensive car for the people of Germany.
The Führer's demand was embodied in metal by the brilliant designer Ferdinand Porsche, who presented already in January 1934 the drawings of the first car for the people, which was called the "people's car" ("Volks-Wagen"). The basis of the people's car was the previously developed model Porsche Typ 60.
During World War II, work on the construction of Volkswagen was suspended, and the unfinished plant was converted to the production of military products.
VW opened its divisions in 1959 in Brazil - "Volkswagen do Brasil S.A.", and then in Mexico "Volkswagen de Mexico S.A. de C.V."
The Golf I, introduced in 1974, marked a new stage of competition in the production of a class of compact cars that became almost officially called the "golf class".
Volkswagen has given the world iconic vehicles and is firmly in first place in many automotive niches.
Autostadt (Autostadt) - a real city within a city with a length of more than 5 km and an area of 25 hectares, which is the communication platform of the Volkswagen Group, its individual brands and customers. The complex is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Germany, which is visited annually by about 2 million people. The Volkswagen Autostadt is located on the bank of an artificial canal between the center of Wolfsburg and the Volkswagen factory.
Volkswagen has its own football team (VFL "Wolfsburg") with the excellent home stadium Volkswagen Arena.
2. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles
This is part of the Volkswagen Group, which produces commercial vehicles such as minibuses, buses, pickups, trucks and tractors.
Initially, this division was one part of VW, but in 1995 Dr. Bernd Wiedemann, former chairman of the board of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, announced the separation of the division into an independent production unit of the group.
The Audi concern was formed as a result of the merger of four companies that produced cars and motorcycles under the brands DKW, Horch, Audi and Wanderer. On June 29, 1932, Audi, Horch and DKW merged to form Auto Union AG, symbolized by the famous four rings.
In 1964, the company became part of Volkswagen. In 1965, it was decided to release all new models of the concern that had lost its independence under the Audi brand. The first time after the takeover of Volkswagen did not want Audi to develop its own cars. They were going to produce the VW "Beetle" model at the enterprise's facilities. But Ludwig Kraus, who was then the head of the design department, decided to develop the model secretly from everyone. The result of his work was the Audi 100, which appeared in 1968.
In 1993, the Audi Group was formed, which eventually included the Hungarian and Brazilian divisions, the British Cosworth Technology, the Italian Automobili Lamborghini and the Spanish SEAT were absorbed.
4. Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. (shortly: Lamborghini) is an Italian manufacturer of luxury sports cars. Located in the village of Sant'Agata Bolognese, near Bologna. The company was founded in 1963 by Ferruccio Lamborghini.
In 1978, due to the oil crisis, the company declared itself bankrupt. For the next 20 years, Automobili Lamborghini was owned by Chrysler and then by M'tec (Megatech). In 1998, Audi AG became the owner of the company.
The history of the SEAT brand dates back to 1919. Then the Italian company FIAT decides to open its branch in the town of Martorell, a suburb of Barcelona. On November 13, 1953, the first SEAT car rolled off the assembly line at the Martorell plant.
On September 30, 1982, a cooperation agreement was signed between SEAT and the Volkswagen Group, and on June 9, 1986, Volkswagen acquired a 51% stake in the Spanish company. By 1990, the Volkswagen Group became the full owner of SEAT.
The first cars under the Skoda brand were produced in 1919. On April 16, 1991, an agreement was signed on the sale of a 31% stake in the ownership of Škoda, a.a.s. VAG for 620 million marks.
In December 1995, VAG increased its share to 70% by paying 1.4 billion marks. In January 1998, the company changed its name to Škoda Auto, a.s. VAG received final control in May 2000, when the remaining 30% share was bought out for 12.3 billion kroons.
A more detailed history of the Skoda brand can be read on ours.
Ettore Bugatti founded his firm in 1909. Sports cars Type 16 and Type 18 were made in 1914. At the European Grand Prix in 1924, the Bugatti Type 35 took all the first four places. Today, Bugatti is focused on the production of expensive sports cars.
The Bugatti brand was acquired by Volkswagen AG in 1998. The first car it presented was the fiberglass EB118 coupe, created by ItalDesign stylist Fabrizio Giugiaro.
In 2005, the Volkswagen concern begins mass production of a new unique model, officially called the bugatti veyron 16.4.
8. Bentley is an English company specializing in the production of exclusive expensive cars that are not available to everyone.
The history of the English automaker Bentley began on January 18, 1919, when Walter Owen Bentley, together with F. Barges and G. Varley, developed their first car with a 3-liter engine unprecedented for those times.
Bentley has been making luxury cars since 1930.
In 1952 Bentley introduced the Continental. It was a sports two-door car that gained fame as the fastest production sedan.
Bentley still produces various variants of the Continental, which are distinguished by excellent quality interior trim (leather from Conolli, rare wood panels or polished aluminum) and thoughtful chassis design.
The most powerful Continental T with a short wheelbase and a 6.8-liter Vickers turbo engine develops 426 hp. and is rightfully considered one of the fastest coupes in the world.
Since 1998, Bentley has been part of the Volkswagen Group.
9. MAN SE is a German engineering company specializing in the production of trucks, buses and engines. Founded in 1758, it was previously called Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG (Machine Factory Augsburg-Nürnberg, AO). The headquarters is located in Munich.
From January 1943 to April 1945 inclusive, MAN produced Pz Kpfw V "Panther" tanks by order of the Reich.
In 1951, the company developed the first German diesel engine for trucks with an exhaust gas turbocharger.
In 1962, MAN took over Porsche Diesel Motorenbau (the diesel tractor division of Porsche KG in the 1950s and early 1960s).
In 1979, MAN began cooperating with Volkswagen on medium-sized trucks, which received the MAN-VW brand.
To date, the main shareholder of MAN is the Volkswagen Group (75.03%), the rest of the shares are in free float. In March 2013, VW made a preliminary offer to buy the remaining shares in MAN. The issue of buying the company will be considered by the board of directors of MAN SE at the annual meeting on June 6.
10.Scania AB is a Swedish manufacturer of trucks, buses and industrial and marine engines that has been producing buses since 1920. The headquarters is located in Södertälje, Sweden.
In 1969, Scania merged with the Swedish company Saab. But their cooperation did not last long, and since 1995 Scania has again become an independent company.
Major shareholders: Volkswagen AG (70.94%), MAN (17.37%).
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (full name Doktor Ingenieur honoris causa Ferdinand Porsche Aktiengesellschaft - Joint Stock Company of the Honorary Doctor of Engineering Ferdinand Porsche) is a German engineering company founded by the famous designer Ferdinand Porsche in 1931. The headquarters and manufactory is located in Stuttgart, Germany.
In 1939, the company's first car, the Porsche 64, was developed, which became the progenitor of all future Porsches, and in 1963, the company's most famous model, the Porsche 911, was presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
In December 2009, 49.9% of the company's shares were acquired by Volkswagen AG. In August 2012, VW finally took over Porsche.
12. Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer.
Ducati was founded in 1926 in Bologna. The founders of the company were the brothers Andriano and Marcello Ducati. Both of them were interested in radio engineering, so the first direction of the company's work was precisely the production of radio engineering. In the 20s of the XX century, the demand for horns, loudspeakers did its job, and the company developed well.
After the Second World War, the demand for radio equipment fell sharply, and the company came under state control. At that time, it was important for Italy to create cheap vehicles, so Ducati's activities were retrained into the production of motorbikes and velomobiles.
Already in the early 1950s, Ducati conquered half of the Italian motorbike market. By this time, light motorcycles were becoming more and more popular.
Since July 2012, Ducati has been a division of Audi AG.
The Volkswagen Group is also one of the largest shareholders of the Japanese company Suzuki Motor Corporation.
About thirty years ago, the famous American manager Lee Iacocca said that by the beginning of the 21st century, only a few players would remain in the global automotive market. The ex-president of Chrysler and Ford saw through the trends in the further development of the automotive industry, so it is not at all surprising that his predictions are confirmed.
The world's largest automakers and alliances
At first glance, it may seem that there are many independent automakers in the world, but in fact, most auto companies are part of various groups and alliances.
Thus, Lee Iacocca looked into the water, and today there are actually only a few automakers left in the world who have divided the entire global car market among themselves.
What brands are owned by Ford
Interestingly, the companies he headed - Chrysler and Ford - the leaders of the American auto industry, suffered the most serious losses during the economic crisis. And they had never been in such serious troubles before. Chrysler and General Motors went bankrupt, and only a miracle saved Ford. But for this miracle, the company had to pay too dear a price, because as a result, Ford lost its premium division Premiere Automotive Group, which included Land Rover, Volvo and Jaguar. Moreover, Ford lost Aston Martin, the British supercar manufacturer, a controlling stake in Mazda, and liquidated the Mercury brand. And today, only two brands remain from the huge empire - Lincoln and Ford itself.
What brands belong to the auto concern General Motors
General Motors suffered no less serious losses. The American company lost Saturn, Hummer, SAAB, but its bankruptcy did not prevent it from defending the Opel and Daewoo brands. Today, General Motors includes such brands as Vauxhall, Holden, GMC, Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick. In addition, the Americans own the Russian joint venture GM-AvtoVAZ, which produces the Chevrolet Niva.
Automaker Fiat and Chrysler
And the American concern Chrysler now acts as a strategic partner of Fiat, which has brought together such brands as Ram, Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, Lancia, Maserati, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo under its wing.
In Europe, things are somewhat different than in the US. Here the crisis has also made its own adjustments, but the position of the monsters of the European automobile industry has not been shaken by this.
What brands belong to the Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen is still accumulating brands. After buying Porsche in 2009, the Volkswagen Group has nine brands - Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Bentley, Porsche, Audi, truck manufacturer Scania and VW itself. There is evidence that soon this list will include Suzuki, 20 percent of whose shares are already owned by the Volkswagen Group.
Brands owned by Daimler AG and BMW Group
As for the other two "Germans" - BMW and Daimler AG, they cannot boast of such an abundance of brands. Under the wing of Daimler AG are the brands Smart, Maybach and Mercedes, and the history of BMW includes Mini and Rolls-Royce.
Renault and Nissan Automobile Alliance
Among the world's largest automakers, one cannot fail to mention the Renault-Nissan alliance, which owns such brands as Samsung, Infiniti, Nissan, Dacia and Renault. In addition, Renault owns 25 percent of AvtoVAZ shares, so Lada is also not an independent brand from the French-Japanese alliance.
Another major French automaker, PSA, owns Peugeot and Citroen.
Japanese automaker Toyota
And among Japanese automakers, only Toyota, which owns Subaru, Daihatsu, Scion and Lexus, can boast of a “collection” of brands. Also part of Toyota Motor is the truck manufacturer Hino.
Who owns Honda
Honda's achievements are more modest. In addition to the motorcycle department and the premium Acura brand, the Japanese have nothing else.
Successful Auto Alliance Hyundai-Kia
In recent years, the Hyundai-Kia alliance has been successfully breaking into the list of leaders in the global automotive industry. Today, it produces cars only under the brands Kia and Hyundai, but the Koreans are already seriously engaged in creating a premium brand that could be called Genesis.
Acquisitions and mergers in recent years include the takeover of the Chinese brand Volvo by Geely, as well as the acquisition of the British premium brands Land Rover and Jaguar by the Indian company Tata. And even the most curious case is the purchase of the famous Swedish brand SAAB by the tiny Dutch supercar manufacturer Spyker.
The once powerful British auto industry is dead. All the famous British car manufacturers have long since lost their independence. Their example was followed by small English firms that passed to foreign owners. In particular, the legendary Lotus today belongs to Proton (Malaysia), and the Chinese SAIC bought MG. By the way, the same SAIC had previously sold the Korean SsangYong Motor to the Indian Mahindra&Mahindra.
All of these strategic partnerships, alliances, mergers and acquisitions have once again proven Lee Iacocca right. Single firms in the modern world are no longer able to survive. Yes, there are exceptions, like the Japanese Mitsuoka, the English Morgan or the Malaysian Proton. But these companies are independent only in the sense that absolutely nothing depends on them.
And in order to have annual sales amounting to hundreds of thousands of cars, not to mention millions, one cannot do without a strong “rear”. In the Renault-Nissan alliance, partners provide support to each other, while in the Volkswagen Group, mutual assistance is ensured by the number of brands.
As for such companies as Mitsubishi and Mazda, in the future they will face more and more difficulties. While Mitsubishi can get the help of partners from PSA, Mazda will have to survive alone, which in the modern world is becoming more and more difficult every day ...
Today we’ll talk about Volkswagen aktiengesellschaft, which literally translates from German as a Volkswagen joint-stock company. Yes, this is how VAG stands for, although in our country everyone is used to thinking that VAG is the Volkswagen Audi Group, but this is more of a popular name.
VAG is also sometimes called Volkswagen Konzern, Volkswagen Group, VW Group.
Let's see what is Volkswagen aktiengesellschaft. This joint-stock company includes 342 companies that are engaged in the production of cars and everything connected with it. There is a small legal confusion within the company, which does not give a clear picture of the owner of the concern. Volkswagen is partly owned by Porsche automobil Holding SE, 50.73% to be exact. In turn, Volkswagen AG owns 49.9% of Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH. That is, today it is such an automotive giant consisting of Volkswagen and Porsche. The company is even negotiating a merger into a single structure of Volkswagen Porsche.
Yet how is it that one company owns so many car brands? The thing is that at the end of the last century, Volkswagen experienced serious financial difficulties. In 1993, Ferdinand Piech was appointed chairman of the board of the concern, who helped the company get out of the deepest crisis.
He managed to optimize the work of the enterprise well and get out of the crisis while buying up weak car brands at that moment.
Which brands are included in the Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft?
1. - produces passenger cars
2. - The company was bought from daimler-benz in 1964.
3. - the company was acquired in 1991.
4. is an Italian brand of passenger cars that was bought from the state in 1986.
5. Bentley - premium segment cars, the brand was purchased in 1998.
6.Lamborghini is a supercar company owned by Audi which bought it in 1998.
7.Porsche - we have already talked about the mess with the shares, but still it is believed that Porsches are part of Volkswagen.
8.Ducati Motor - a brand little known in the CIS, but very popular abroad, is engaged in the production of premium motorcycles, also acquired by Audi in 2012.
Scania AB - 70% of the shares were acquired in 2009, the company produces truck tractors and trucks, which by the way are in great demand in the Russian Federation
Man - 56% of the shares was acquired in 2011. The company is also engaged in the production of truck tractors, trucks, dump trucks and buses.
There is another company called Volkswagen comercial Vehicles that produces commercial vehicles. These are cars like the Volkswagen Crafter.
Some facts about VAG
2005 the concern produced 5.22 million vehicles
In 2006, the concern sold 5.72 million cars, net profit for this period amounted to 2.75 billion euros (Hello AvtoVAZ)
The Volkswagen Group, also known as Volkswagen Konzern, Volkswagen Group or VW Group, is a group of automotive companies, among which Volkswagen AG is considered the parent company. The headquarters of the Volkswagen Group is located in Wolfsburg. With the owners of the VW Group, not everything was unequivocally clear until 2012. Until then, Porsche SE had owned 50.73% of the shares of Volkswagen AG, although the latter owned 100% of the shares of Porsche GmbH. Porsche is now wholly owned by the VW Group.
Martin Winterkorn is the head of Volkswgaen AG and also the Chairman of the Management Board of Porsche SE.
The Volkswagen Group includes 342 companies, but not all of them are engaged in auto production: many of them simply provide services related to the production of cars. The VW Group has repeatedly become the world's largest automaker, where it traditionally battles with General Motors, Toyota and Renault-Nissan.
In 1998 - 2002, being the owner of Bentley, concern Volkswagen Group part-time produced prestigious Rolls-Royce cars, although for this the company had to conclude an agreement with BMW. However, since 2003, when BMW bought the rights to Rolls-Royce from Vickers, the production of Rolls-Royce brand cars has remained the privilege of the Bavarian brand BMW.
In December 2009, the Volkswagen Group entered into an agreement to develop sustainable vehicles with the Japanese company Suzuki. At the same time, the German concern got a 20% stake in Suzuki. The alliance did not last long: in the fall of 2011, it broke up.
VW Group corporate structure
It specializes in the production of passenger cars and is directly subordinate to the management of Volkswagen AG.
The last of the former members of the Auto Union group, bought out from the Daimler concern in 1964.
NSU Motorenwerke. Belongs to the VW Group since 1969 and is listed as part of the Audi Division. As an independent brand, it has not been used since 1977.
Since 1986, the German concern has owned 53% of the shares (controlling stake). This year, VW Group signed a contract to buy SEAT from the state. In 1990, the VW Group became virtually the sole owner of SEAT: it owns 99.99% of the shares of the Spanish automaker.
VW Group has had exclusive rights to this Czech automaker since 1991.
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. It produces commercial vehicles: minibuses, buses and tractors. Until 1995, this division was part of Volkswagen AG, but thanks to Bernd Weidemann, it became an independent division within the VW Group.
The company became the property of the VW Group in 1998, when it was sold by the British concern Vichers. The German concern also received Rolls-Royce as a "load", but without the right to sole production of cars under this brand, since the British sold the brand itself to another German automaker - BMW.
Crashed after the failed supercar EB110, the French brand barely kept afloat until it was bought by the VW Group in 1998.
The deal for the purchase of this Italian brand was concluded with Audi in 1998.
The German concern bought a 70.94% stake in the Swedish truck manufacturer in 2009. With a controlling stake in Scania, VW Group has full control over the production of truck tractors, trucks and dump trucks, buses and diesel engines under this brand.
The deal to purchase a controlling stake in MAN took place in 2011 (VW Group owns 55.9% of MAN shares). Under this brand, truck tractors, trucks and dump trucks, buses, diesel and hybrid engines are produced.
Porsche AG has been owned by the VW Group since 2009 with a 49.9% stake. In 2011, the merger between Porsche and Volkswagen failed, but in 2012, Volkswagen bought Porsche, making it the 12th brand in this group of companies. Since then, the VW Group has owned a 50.1% stake in Porsche, for which the company laid out 4.49 billion euros.
The Italian superbike manufacturer has been owned by Audi AG since spring 2012. The deal to buy Ducati from Investindustrial SpA cost the German VW Group $1.1 billion.
Since 2009, VW Group has been one of the largest shareholders in Suzuki Motor Corporation.
As of 2013, the VW Group owns the Russian trademark Moskvich. The right to use this brand and all its emblems belongs to Volkswagen until 2021.
The VW Group owns 48 automobile manufacturing enterprises: there are VW Group plants in 15 European countries, in six American, Asian and African countries. The enterprises of the group employ more than 370,000 people. The daily production volume exceeds 26,600 vehicles. Authorized sales and service points for VW Group vehicles are located in more than 150 countries around the world.
