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Who does Volkswagen own?

January 20, 2025

It's a name everyone is familiar with, but there's more to Volkswagen than just the VW badge, so let's find out exactly who does Volkswagen own, because the answer is a lot.

Volkswagen is Europe’s top car manufacturer, and has been known to also be the world’s number one car maker as well, regularly battling it out with Toyota and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance.

Their portfolio is massive with more than 600,000 employees worldwide and an enormous business empire spanning the globe. It also has nearly 100 years of history behind it as well.

What brands do VW own?

The most obvious brands owned by VW are the ones with Volkswagen in the title, so that’s Volkswagen, the maker of the passenger cars, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.

There are, however, scores of other brands within the Volkswagen Group business, all of which are household names, ranging from motorbikes and supercars up to heavy goods vehicles and buses.

So, who do Volkswagen group own? Here are the main automotive brands owned by Volkswagen.

The company can pretty much be split into three segments with regular passenger cars, luxury brands and commercial vehicles.

However, Volkswagen has several interests beyond just producing cars, they are investors in hundreds of smaller companies (and also some very large ones), many of which supply their automotive businesses.

Perhaps the most famous, or infamous given the criticism they’ve had over the years, is CARIAD the automotive software company.

Volkswagen and passenger cars

From the humble beginnings of the Beetle, the Volkswagen Group now produces more than 100 car models in thousands of iterations. Its core brands of Audi, SEAT, Skoda and Volkswagen account for the group’s volume sales across the world.

Luxury brands

The roster of high-value and luxury brands in the Volkswagen Group is astonishing with Porsche, Bentley and even Lamborghini eclipsed by the majesty of Bugatti. As if that’s not enough, there’s also performance motorbike brand Ducati, as well.

Commercial vehicles

It’s not all just about cars, though. The VW Group has a massive portfolio of heavy and light goods vehicles.

There’s Scania and MAN that are both owned by Volkswagen in a subsidiary called Traton, or Traton Group, which also includes Volkswagen Truck & Bus – a Latin American bus and heavy truck business.

That’s also not to be confused with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles which sells all of the Volkswagen vans we know and love from the Caddy, Transporter and Crafter as well as Amarok pick-up truck.

Traton Group Logo

How many companies does Volkswagen own?

A lot. Apart from the brands listed above, and the software business mentioned as well, Volkswagen Group has a large financial services portfolio.

There are financial services for Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche, Volkswagen (and Volkswagen Leasing)  as well as a Marine and Industrial Motor division.

Volkswagen Group Fleet International, Group Supply and Air Service all make up part of its logistics operations and there are international busineses in China, Japan, India, America, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and many many more.

Overall, Volkswagen is active in around 150 countries, producing more than 9m cars annually with €322bn in revenues in 2023.

Volkswagen Group brands

Below we’ll outline a few facts about each of the Volkswagen Group automotive brands

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is the original people’s car, founded in 1937 in Berlin by the German Labour Front it was Adolf Hitler who ordered the creation of an affordable car for the masses capable of cruising on the autobahn with two adults and three children on board.

The outcome was the Volkswagen Beetle, a triumph of automotive production that remained in production from 1938 through until 2019.

Other notable success stories include the Golf, which was for many year’s their most successful car, however, the Tiguan surpassed the Golf in 2019.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles

While the passenger cars had the Beetle, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles owes all of its success to the Transporter.

The Transporter, also known as Bulli, Kombi, VW bus or microbus, was first launched to the world at the Commercial Motor Show at Earl’s Court, London in 1954, but prototypes of the T1 were made in 1949 followed by a domestic product.

It used the engine and gearbox from the Beetle and could manage an impressive 750kg payload.

Audi

Founded in 1910 by August Horch, its name derives from the Latin translation of "Horch," meaning "listen." The iconic four-ring logo symbolizes the 1932 merger of Audi, Horch, DKW, and Wanderer.

Auto Union was acquired by Volkswagen in 1965 from Daimler-Benz, relaunching as Audi.

Bentley

Headquartered in Crewe, Bentley was founded in 1909 by brothers Walter Owen Bentley and Horace Miller Bentley and has been part of VW since 1998.

During the Great Depression, it went into receivership in 1931 and was sold to British Central Equitable Trust, a front company for Rolls-Royce. After Rolls and Bentley were separated in 1973, Bentley focused on cars while Rolls-Royce developed its aerospace business.

Bentley was sold to Volkswagen in in the late Nineties, but it’s believed VW boss Ferdinand Piëch had hoped he was buying both Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Sadly the aerospace business, retained the Rolls-Royce name and the logo – eventually selling them to BMW.

Bugatti

Volkswagen bought Bugatti in 1998. The company had been mothballed and not made a car in years. Piech wanted Bugatti to create the world’s fastest car and leveraged much of the VW group’s skills (those acquired from ownership of Bentley, Audi and Lamborghini) to do so.

In 2000 Volkswagen incorporated Bugatti Automobiles and the story of the Veyron hypercar began.

Bugatti Automobiles is now owned by Bugatti Rimac company – a joint venture, part owned by Porsche (45%) and Rimac Group (55%).

Bugatti-Rimac company CEO is Mate Rimac a Croatian innovator and entrepreneur, and founder of electric hypercar company Rimac. To make matters more confusing, Porsche also owns 22% of the Rimac Group.

Cupra

The newest name in the Volkswagen stable of brands, Cupra is the sporty version of SEAT. Known for its racing team – Cup Racing – in the 1990s, Cupra became a badge on the Seat Ibiza and Seat Leon cars before eventually being carved off as a sister-brand in 2018 – much like Citroen did with DS.

Ducati

Through Volkswagen Group’s ownership of Lamborghini the company took a majority stake in the Italian design house Italdesign Giugiaro, in 2010, adding to their portfolio of Italian super brands with motorcycle manufacturer Ducati in 2012.

Lamborghini

Perhaps the most evocative name in the VW Group brand portfolio, Volkswagen came to the resure of Lamborghini in 1998 after a string of fairly disastrous ownership periods.

After falling into bankruptcy in  1973, the company founded in 1963 by Ferruccio Lamborghini in Sant'Agata Bolognese, was sold to investors who again filed for bankruptcy in 1978. Chrysler then bought Lamborghini in 1987 but sold it to South East Asian investments firms in 1994.

Four years later it was sold to VW who now share IP for its supercars and performance SUVs with Audi.

MAN

MAN is the company responsible for the development of the diesel engine, so if that’s not reason enough to buy them then we’re not sure what is.

Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who invented the diesel engine and the company which eventually became known as MAN was the first to adopt it. The first prototype to run under its own diesel power was in August 10, 1893. Later they would also be the first manufacture with direct diesel fuel injection in 1923.

VW acquired MAN in 2011, but had been a minority share holder in the business since 2006.

Porsche

Founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche, the saga of Porsche and VW is a confusing one with several ch angles of ownership stakes between the two famous names.

Volkswagen Group purchased Porsche in 2012, but that was only after Porsche, which owned 50.7% of V,  tried to buy the remaining 49.3% of its future owners. Hostile or un-hostile takeover, it was a tumultuous period for both manufacturers including boardroom struggles between executive and the Piech family.

More recently Porsche has undergone an IPO to launch itself as a separate business identity on the stock exchange. 

Scania

Arguably the most prestigious brand in the heavy goods world, Scania has been part of the VW Group since 2008 with a minority stake held since 2000.

Scania, along with MAN, now form part of the Traton Group within Volkswagen.

SEAT

Volkswagen bought a controlling stake in SEAT in 1986, buying it outright in 1990 when the Spanish government gave up their stake, making it the first non-German brand within the VW Group. .

A spin off brand,  CUPRA, was launched in 2018 based on the highly successful performance versions of their affordable family cars.

Skoda

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, VW signed a joint venture with Czech manufacturer Skoda, taking a 30% stake in the automaker. VW continued to increase its shareholding, purchasing a controlling stake in 1994, before eventually completing the takeover in 2000.

Skoda was founded in 1895 as bicycle manufacturer Laurin & Klement. In 1925 arms maker Skoda Works took control, building tanks in World War Two while under the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.

Written by: George Barrow 

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