Volkswagen (abbreviated VW) is one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers. The company is headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Volkswagen is the original marque within the Volkswagen Group, which includes the car marques Audi, Bentley Motors, Bugatti Automobiles, Automobili Lamborghini, SEAT, Škoda Auto and heavy goods vehicle manufacturer Scania.
Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, in which it is pronounced 'f?lks?va?g?n. Its current tagline or slogan is Das Auto (in English The Car). Among its largest owners are the Porsche family, the Emirate of Qatar and the state of Lower Saxony.
Volkswagen was originally founded in 1937 by the Nazi trade union, the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront). In the early 1930s German auto industry was still largely composed of luxury models, and the average German rarely could afford anything more than a motorcycle. Seeking a potential new market, some car makers began independent "peoples' car" projects - Mercedes' 170H, Adler's AutoBahn, Steyr 55, Hanomag 1,3L, among others. The trend was not new, as Béla Barényi is credited with having conceived the basic design in the middle 1920's. Josef Ganz developed the Standard Superior (going as far as advertising it as the "German Volkswagen").
The present comprehensive range of vehicles marketed under the 'VW' banner are Eos,Fox, Golf, Jetta, Beetle, Passat, Polo, Scirocco, Sharan, Touareg & Touran.