Volkswagen AG << VOHKS `wag` uhn or FOHLKS vah guhn >> , a German automobile manufacturer, is one of the world’s leading producers of passenger cars. The German word Volkswagen (VW) means people’s car. AG is the abbreviation for a German word meaning corporation.
Volkswagen manufactures automobiles in a number of countries throughout the world. Subsidiary companies of Volkswagen include Audi AG of Germany, Bentley Motors of the United Kingdom, Bugatti of France, Lamborghini of Italy, Porsche of Germany, and the Swedish truck manufacturer Scania. Volkswagen also manufactures automotive parts and electronic products. Volkswagen’s headquarters are in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The German government established Volkswagen in 1937. The German dictator Adolf Hitler wanted a compact, durable car that most people could afford. Hitler contacted Ferdinand Porsche, an Austrian engineer, who designed the car that would evolve into the Beetle. Only a few Beetles were built before World War II (1939-1945) began. Volkswagen shifted to building vehicles for the German army during the war.
From 1945 until the mid-1960’s, Volkswagen produced chiefly Beetles. Also known as the “Bug,” the Beetle became one of the most popular cars ever built. The company stopped production of Beetles at its German plants in the late 1970’s and altogether in 2003. From 1998 to 2019, Volkswagen sold the New Beetle. Other popular Volkswagen models have been the Golf—sometimes called the Rabbit in the United States and Canada—and the Jetta. In 2010, Volkswagen acquired a stake in the Suzuki Motor Corporation. In 2012, Volkswagen completed a merger with Porsche AG, the car company founded by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931. The two companies had always maintained a close relationship.
A scandal erupted in 2015, after it was discovered that Volkswagen had equipped some cars with computer software that altered the results of vehicle emissions tests in the United States. In tests, the cars appeared to be polluting less than they really were. They were actually producing more toxic fumes than permitted by regulations. Volkswagen issued a worldwide recall of some 11 million VW, Audi, and Porsche diesel vehicles, including more than 500,000 in the United States. The company also paid billions of dollars in fines and lawsuits around the world.
