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Volkswagen AG

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Volkswagen AG
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Major German automobile manufacturer. It was founded in 1937 to mass-produce a low-priced "people's car" (Volkswagen). After World War II the company was rebuilt with Allied help, and within a decade it was producing half of West Germany's motor vehicles. U.S. sales of the small, rounded car were initially low, but a humorous advertising campaign promoting the car as "the Beetle" lifted sales in the 1960s, making it the leading auto import in the U.S. Competition from other foreign compact cars brought VW near bankruptcy by 1974, but the firm rebounded by introducing sportier models such as the Rabbit. In 1998 it launched a fully redesigned version of the Beetle. With its affiliates, VW operates plants worldwide; it also owns other auto brands, including Audi and Bentley.

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Hoover's Profile: Volkswagen AG
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(German:VOW)
Contact Information
Volkswagen AG
Brieffach 1849
38436 Wolfsburg, Germany
Tel. +49-5361-9-0
Fax +49-5361-9-28282

Type: Public
On the web: http://www.volkswagenag.com
 Employees: 369,928
Employee growth: 12.3%

With cars named for climate patterns, insects, and small mammals, Volkswagen (VW) leads the Continent as Europe's #1 carmaker. Along with Golf (referring to the Gulf Stream) and the New Beetle, VW's annual production of 6 million cars, trucks, and vans includes such models as Passat (trade wind), Jetta (jet stream), Rabbit, and Fox. VW also owns a garage full of luxury carmakers -- AUDI, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti. Other makes include SEAT (family cars, Spain) and SKODA (family cars, the Czech Republic). VW announced in October 2009 its plans to acquire a 49.9% stake in Porsche for about E3.9 billion (almost $6 billion) as the first step in combining the two into an integrated car company.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2008:
Sales: $160,412.4M
One year growth: 0.1%
Net income: $6,607.7M
Income growth: 8.9%

Officers:
Chairman Supervisory Board: Ferdinand K. Piëch
Chairman Management Board: Martin Winterkorn
Member Management Board, Finance and Controlling: Hans D. Pötsch

Competitors:
Daimler
Ford Motor
General Motors

 
 

 

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Hoover's Profile. ©2008 Hoover's, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more