Volkswagen

From VolksWiki

The VW logo

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and currently the 4th largest automobile manufacturer in the world and the largest in Europe. Volkswagen's core market is the European Union and its major subsidiaries include well-known brands like Audi, Bentley, Škoda, Lamborghini, Bugatti, SEAT and the brand Volkswagen itself. The Volkswagen Golf is the third bestselling car in the world, selling over 25 million cars through 2006. In 2007 the Volkswagen group sold 6.19 million automobiles claiming over 10% of the world passenger car market. In late 2007, the company openly reported that they plan to overtake Toyota and become the world's largest automaker by 2018Template:Fact.

Volkswagen's second-largest market is China where its subsidiary, Volkswagen Group China is by far the second largest joint venture automaker.

1 History
2 Leadership
3 Brands
- 3.1 Heavy truck investments
4 Investors
5 Notes
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

VW was founded in 1937 as a public concern by the then National Socialistic government to sell the Volkswagen Beetle. 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 (Aktiengesellschaft, abbreviated AG, being equivalent to the English Corp[oration] or American Inc[orporated]). The name was changed to VOLKSWAGEN AG on 4 July 1985, to reflect the company's increasing global diversification from its headquarters and main plant, the Volkswagenwerk in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Image:VW golf V.jpg

Volkswagen's Golf is the third bestselling car in the world, selling over 25 million through 2006

In October 2005, Porsche acquired an 18.53% stake in the business. In July 2006, Porsche increased their ownership to more than 25%. Press reports presume this was done to prevent a foreign takeover.Template:Fact Later that year Porsche further increase their ownership to 30.9%, forcing them to launch the mandatory takeover required by German law, however Porsche expects this takeover to fail. However, many commentators argued that this investment in VW fits well to Porsche's strategy.Template:Fact

In Sept of 2007 reports have surfaced that Porsche is looking to further increase its share of VW as EU courts are challenging the 47-year-old German law that gives any investor with at least a 20 percent stake the ability to block major decisions. See: Template:Cite web

On March 3rd 2008 Porsche decided to increase its VW stake up to 50 per cent. This was announced just hours after VW declared it would take the majority stake in the Swedish truckmaker Scania.<ref>Porsche makes its move for Volkswagen</ref>

[edit] Leadership

1945-1948 — Ivan Hirst
1948-1967 — Heinrich Nordhoff
1968-1971 — Kurt Lotz
1971-1975 — Rudolf Leiding
1975-1982 — Toni Schmucker
1982-1993 — Carl Hahn
January 1, 1993 - April 16, 2002 — Ferdinand Piëch
April 16, 2002 - December 31, 2006 — Bernd Pischetsrieder
January 1, 2007 - present — Martin Winterkorn

[edit] Brands

Image:Porsche-VAG Alliance.svg

Schematic of Volkswagen's extended financial relationships.

The company owns nine active automotive based brands:

There are also five inactive brands of Audi AG, who are part of Volkswagen AG:

Auto Union (although the Auto Union badge is still used on all Audi models)
DKW
Horch
NSU (although the small amount of Audi shares not owned by VW trade under the ticker symbol NSU)
Wanderer

[edit] Heavy truck investments

Volkswagen is also the largest shareholder in Scania AB with a capital stake of 20.03% and 35.31% of voting rights. Prior to the increase of the stake in March 2007 they held a capital stake of 16.5% and a voting stake of 33.4%. On Monday March 3rd 2008, it was announced that Volkswagen would acquire all the shares in Scania held by Sweden's Wallenberg family through their investment company Investor AB, and the Wallenberg Foundation. The purchase of the stake will increase Volkswagen’s total votes in Scania to 68.60% (previously 37.98%) which corresponds to 37.73% of the capital (previously 20.89%). Once cleared by the relevant authorities, this will result in Scania AB becoming the ninth brand in the Volkswagen Group.

On October 4, 2006, Volkswagen acquired a 15.1% stake in German truck maker MAN AG, later increased to 29.9%, who had launched an offer to acquire Scania (which was eventually withdrawn). Previous Volkswagen CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder, and his successor Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, plan to organise a three-way merger between MAN, Scania, VW's own Brazilian heavy truck division and possibly their light truck and van division as well. Due to VW's stakes in MAN and Scania, it is expected that VW will have a blocking minority stake of at least 25.1% in the merged entity.