Volkswagen

History

Volkswagen was founded in 1937, originally established by the German Labour Front to manufacture the affordable Volkswagen Beetle. After World War II, Volkswagen evolved into a global conglomerate. The Beetle became the most iconic automobile of the 20th century. The Volkswagen Group today owns twelve brands including Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, Skoda, and SEAT.

EV strategy

The Volkswagen Group delivered around 983,000 electric cars in 2025, 32 percent more than the year before; that put its electric share into double digits for the first time, at 10.9 percent, and in Europe the group led the market clearly with about 27 percent share. The new Scalable Systems Platform is meant to replace the old architectures but is arriving later than planned: the electric Golf as the first SSP model is due in 2028 or 2029, and the Trinity flagship has slipped to 2032. Until then the ID.4, ID.5 and ID.Buzz carry the range.

Good to know

• The VW Beetle is the best-selling automobile of all time with over 21 million units produced.
• The Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche and is a design classic of the 20th century.
• The Volkswagen Group owns twelve vehicle manufacturing brands and controls the world's largest portfolio of electric vehicle platforms.
• VW PowerCo, the group's battery division, has already produced over 100,000 cells at test sites in Europe and North America.