Volkswagen vehicle research

Volkswagen, commonly abbreviated to VW, is a German automobile brand based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by the German Labour Front, it was revived after World War II by British Army officer Ivan Hirst and, over the 81 years since, grew into the global brand it is today. As of 2025, the company had a market capitalization of approximately US$58.9 billion.

History

Volkswagen was established in 1937 by the Nazi Party's German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) as part of the Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude, abbreviated to KdF) program in Berlin. In the early 1930s, cars were a luxury; most Germans could afford nothing more elaborate than a motorcycle, and only one out of 50 Germans owned a car.

Lineup

Volkswagen began as the "People's Car" project of 1930s Germany, and the original Beetle that resulted became the template for the company's identity as a builder of affordable, mass-market cars for decades, eventually giving way to the Golf as VW's core small car starting in the early 1970s. The company's reputation took a severe hit in September 2015, when the EPA found Volkswagen had deliberately programmed roughly 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide, including 500,000 in the U.S., to detect laboratory emissions testing and activate pollution controls only during the test, while emitting up to 40 times the legal NOx limit in real-world driving — the "Dieselgate" scandal that pushed VW into a costly, ongoing shift away from diesel and, from 2017 onward, toward a deliberate corporate focus on electric vehicles. That shift produced the ID.-badged EV sub-line (ID.4, ID. Buzz), built on VW's dedicated MEB electric platform, sitting alongside the traditional gas lineup where the Golf and Jetta are hatchback/sedan compacts, the Tiguan and Atlas are compact and three-row SUVs, and the Passat name has been discontinued in the U.S. market. Volkswagen also controls Porsche and operates under Germany's unusual "Volkswagen Law," which gives the state of Lower Saxony special voting rights not typical of an ordinary public company.

Awards

Volkswagen was named the fourth most influential car of the 20th century in the 1999 Car of the Century competition, for its Volkswagen Type 1 "Beetle" model. It trailed only the Ford Model T, BMC Mini, and Citroën DS. Volkswagen has produced four winners of the 60-year-old European Car of the Year award.

Motorsport

In 1963, Formula Vee circuit racing, with cars built from easily available Beetle parts, started in the United States. It quickly spread to Europe and other parts of the world. It proved very popular as a low-cost route into formula racing.

Source: Volkswagen (Wikipedia)