VOLKSWAGEN CARS
A TRUSTED BRAND
Volkswagen is a German automaker founded in 4 January 1937 by the German Labour Front, headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany. It is the flagship marque of the Volkswagen Group and is the largest automaker worldwide currently.
Volkswagen translates as "People's Automobile" in German. The company's current international slogan is "Volkswagen". In American English, the pronunciation is approximized as "volks-wagon"
The company owes its post-war existence largely to one man, War-time British Army officer Major . In April 1945, its heavily bombed factory were captured by the Americans, and subsequently handed over to the British, within whose occupation zone the town and factory fell. The factories were placed under the control of Oldham-born Hirst, by then a civilian Military Governor with the occupying forces. At first, one plan was to use it for military vehicle maintenance, and possibly dismantle and ship it to Britain. Since it had been used for military production, and had been in Hirst's words, a "political animal" rather than a commercial enterprise — technically making it liable for destruction under the terms of the Potsdam Agreement — the equipment could have been salvaged as war reparations.
In 1986, Hirst explained how it was commonly misunderstood that he had run Wolfsburg as a British Army Major. The defeated German staff, he said, were initially sullen and unresponsive, having been conditioned by many years of Nazism and they were sometimes unresponsive to orders. At Nordhoff's suggestion, he sent back to England for his officer's uniform and from then on, had no difficulty in having his instructions followed.
The car and its town changed their Second World War-era names to "Volkswagen" and "Wolfsburg" respectively, and production increased. It was still unclear what was to become of the factory. After an inspection of the plant, Sir William Roote, head of the British Roote Group, told Hirst the project would fail within two years, and that the car "...is quite unattractive to the average motorcar buyer, is too ugly and too noisy ... If you think you're going to build cars in this place, you're a bloody fool, young man." The official report said "To build the car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise.
Volkswagens were first exhibited and sold in the United States in 1949, but sold only two units in America that first year. On entry to the U.S. market, the was briefly sold as a Victory Wagon. Volkswagen of America was formed in April 1955 to standardise sales and service in the United States.
Although the car was becoming outdated, during the 1960s and early 1970s, American exports, innovative advertising, and a growing reputation for reliability helped production figures surpass the levels of the previous record holder, the Ford Model T. On 17 February 1972 the 15,007,034th Beetle was sold. Volkswagen could now claim the world production record for the most-produced, single make of car in history. By 1973, total production was over 16 million.
Volkswagen has factories in many parts of the world, manufacturing or assembling vehicles for local markets. Volkswagen has manufacturing or assembly plants in Germany, Mexico, US, Slovakia, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Malaysia, Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and South Africa. In 2011, Volkswagen was named in the top 25 largest companies in the world by the Forbes Global 2000.
Volkswagen agreed in December 2011 to implement a rule passed by the company's works council aimed at improving work–life balance by restricting company email functionality on the firm's BlackBerry smartphones from 6:30 pm to 7:30 am. The change was a response to employees' complaints about high stress levels at work and the expectation that employees would immediately answer after-hours email from home. About 1,150 of Volkswagen's more than 190,000 employees are affected by the email restriction.
In 1974 Volkswagen paid a $120,000 fine to settle a complaint filed by the Environmental Protection Agency over the use of so-called "defeat devices" that disabled certain pollution-control systems. The complaint said the use of the devices violated the U.S. Clean Air Act.
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VOLKSWAGEN (A TRUSTED BRAND)
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