Volkswagen – Company of the Month – August 2019

Company name: Volkswagen

Founder: German Labour Front under Adolf Hitler (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF)

Year: 28 May 1937

Total Assets: €458.156 billion

Revenue: €235.849 billion

Net Income: €13.920 billion

Country: Germany

Headquarter: Wolfsburg, Germany

Industry:      Automotive

Webpage: http://volkswagen.com/

Number of employees: 302,554 (salaried staff)

 

The Volkswagen Group with its headquarters in Wolfsburg is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. In 2011, the group increased the number of vehicles delivered to customers to 8.265 million, reminiscent of a 12.3% share of the world passenger car market.

Volkswagen AG is engaged in developing vehicles and parts for its brands. It also produces and sells vehicles, like passenger cars and light-weight commercial vehicles for Volkswagen passenger cars and Volkswagen commercial vehicles brands. The passenger cars segment cowl the event of vehicles and engines, the assembly and sale of passenger cars, and therefore the corresponding genuine parts business. The commercial Vehicle segment contains the event, production, and sale of sunshine industrial vehicles, trucks and buses, the genuine parts business and related services. The Power Engineering segment comprises the event and production of large-bore diesel engines, turbo compressors, industrial turbines and set up systems, chemical reactor systems, propulsion parts, and testing systems. The Financial Services segment contains dealer and client funding, leasing, banking, and insurance activities, fleet management, and quality services.

The company was originally operated by the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront), a Nazi organization. An Austrian automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche, who was renowned for the initial design of the automobile, was employed by the German Labour Front in 1934, and the ground was broken for a new factory in the state of Lower Saxony in 1938. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 occurred before mass production might begin, and therefore the factory was repurposed to provide military instrumentality and vehicles. Volkswagen’s military involvement makes its works a target for Allied bombers, and by the tip of the war, the factory was in ruins. It had been remodeled under British supervision, and production of the Volkswagen began in 1946. Management of the corporate was transferred in 1949 to the West German government and therefore the state of Lower Saxony. By that point, over half the passenger cars produced in the country were Volkswagens.

The group is made up of 10 brands: Volkswagen, Audi, Scania, SEAT, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, ŠKODA, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, and MAN and operates 94 production plants in 18 European countries and an extra 8 countries in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Every operating day, 501,956 workers worldwide manufacture some 34,500 vehicles, are concerned in vehicle-related services or add the opposite fields of business. The Volkswagen Group sells its vehicles in 153 countries.

Volkswagen production expanded rapidly in the 1950s. The corporate introduced the Transporter van in 1950 and therefore the Karmann Ghia coupe in 1955. Sales abroad were usually sturdy in most countries of export, but, as a result of the car’s small size, uncommon rounded look, and historical association to Nazi Germany, sales within the USA were quite sluggish. The automobile began to achieve acceptance there because the Fifties progressed, however, and Volkswagen of America was established in 1955.

Competition from small automobiles with more-modern styles and therefore the company’s progressively troubled finances eventually set a modification in company philosophy toward developing more-contemporary and sportier car models. As a result, Volkswagen began phasing out its rear-engine cars within the 1970s, replacing them with front-engine front-wheel-drive styles. The first of these new cars was the short-lived K70 in 1970, followed by the Passat in 1973.

Joint ownership of Volkswagen by the West German government and therefore the state of state continued till 1960, once the corporate was principally denationalized with the sale of 60% of its stock to the general public. Since the 1950s, Volkswagen has operated plants throughout much of the world, together with Mexico, Brazil, China, and therefore the USA. In addition to passenger cars, the company also produces vans and industrial vehicles. Volkswagen owns many other automotive corporations, together with Audi and Porsche in the European nation, SEAT in Spain, Škoda within the Czech Republic, Bentley within the UK, Lamborghini in the Italian Republic, and Bugatti in France.

In mid-2015, Volkswagen concisely commands the excellence of being the world’s largest car manufacturer by volume once surpassing Toyota Motor Corporation. However, shortly thenceforth Volkswagen faced a public relations crisis once the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that the manufacturer’s diesel-powered cars contained software that altered the vehicle’s performance to pass emissions tests. Volkswagen admitted to putting in the “defeat device,” and it recalled over ten million cars worldwide. In the USA alone, the manufacturing business faced fines of over $4 billion, and many other Volkswagen officers later were found guilty of assorted crimes. Despite the scandal, Volkswagen sales worldwide continued to increase.