VW’s triumphs and tribulations
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1933: New Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler, calls for a people’s car –
“volkswagen” – that average family can afford

1937: German government founds state-owned Volkswagenwerk

1939: Designed by Ferdinand Porsche, first cars roll off production line in modern-day Wolfsburg

1945-46: After  World War II, heavily bombed factory restarts production.
British Army buys 20,000 vehicles. Company renamed Volkswagen

1949: Volkswagen exports its first cars to North America

1950: Iconic VW Microbus camper van debuts. Factories opened in Australia, Britain, Brazil and South Africa

1959: Advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach launches landmark Beetle advertising campaign

1960s: VW buys Audi. Disney’s first Herbie film, The Love Bug, released

1972: Despite falling sales in U.S., Beetle breaks world car production
record set by Ford Model T with 15,007,034 units built worldwide

1974: VW introduces new models including Golf, credited with saving firm from potential bankruptcy

1990s: VW buys Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat and Skoda

1993: New CEO, Ferdinand Piech, poaches José Ignacio Lopez from General Motors. Law suits follow amid claims of industrial espionage

1998: New Beetle launched

Jul 2003: After nearly 70 years of production last of 21,529,464 Beetles rolls off line in Mexico

2009: VW buys 49.9% stake in Porsche for €3.9 billion

2012: VW buys remaining half of Porsche’s car-making operations  

2014: VW makes one in nine vehicles in world and employs 592,000 people.
Annual revenue hits record €202.5 billion

Sep 2015: VW admits cheating U.S. diesel emissions tests – agrees to recall 11 million diesel vehicles

Nov: Shares tumble as emission problems spread to petrol cars
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Pictures: Associated Press, German Federal Archive, Getty Images, VW

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