If you believed that the Mini Cooper was initially a symbol of Britain, you should know that BMW, a German luxury automaker, owns and manufactures Mini automobiles. Following a deal with Volkswagen Group, who now have custody of Bentley, BMW is now the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, another British luxury car brand that attracts attention everywhere it travels.
In 1917, the engine manufacturer Rapp Motorenwerke changed its name to Bayerische Motoren Werke, and in 1922 it amalgamated with the aircraft manufacturer Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke. It initially began selling aviation engines before extending its manufacture to include motorcycles and cars in the future.
In relation to the Volkswagen group, numerous well-known automobile brands are owned by this German automotive behemoth. Volkswagen currently owns all of Audi, Scania, and Porsche, as well as Skoda Auto, Lamborghini, and Ducati in its entirety. The Volkswagen Group obviously makes great decisions when selecting its auto brands because they can claim to hold some of the best and most recognizable auto brands in the world.
In order to mobilize its populace for the future, the brand needed to have a car for the masses. Only a few of the models were produced before the start of World War II, at which point the factory shifted its focus to producing military vehicles.
Following the war, production of the company’s iconic Beetle began to pick up again, eventually reaching a total of over 21 million. Volkswagen’s corporate headquarters are in Wolfsburg, Germany. These assets are within the corporation’s control:
- Volkswagen
- Bentley
- Audi
- Bugatti
- Porsche
- SEAT
- Lamborghini
- Skoda
- MAN
- Scania
- Ducati
In This Article...
Here are some of the most notable companies that own ultra-luxury and performance carmakers, including Lamborghini, Volkswagen, Rolls-Royce, and BMW.
- Several of the priciest, most opulent, and most powerful supercars on the market today are produced by subsidiaries of much larger corporations.
- For instance, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti are all owned by the Volkswagen Group.
- However, only a small number of supercar brands don’t have larger automotive parent corporations.
One might assume there are dozens upon dozens of automobile manufacturers fighting for our business based on the sheer number of various marques on the road.
However, despite their high prices and illustrious names, even the most upscale manufacturers of ultra-luxury and supercars sell the majority of their products through a small number of enormous corporations.
In reality, General Motors is where your car actually originates, whether you purchase it from Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, or Buick. Alfa Romeos, Fiats, Jeeps, and Dodges are all included in the considerably wider category of Fiat Chrysler. Contrary to popular belief, this also applies to the most opulent, costly, and potent cars money can purchase.
Continue reading to find out which bigger firms are the real owners of independent names like Bentley, Bugatti, and Rolls-Royce.
Group
The Group consists of ten brands from five different European nations: Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche, and Ducati. Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, A KODA, SEAT, and CUPRA are also included. The Volkswagen Group also has a large number of additional brands and business divisions, including financial services. Volkswagen Financial Services includes leasing, leasing for customers and dealers, banking, insurance, and fleet management services.
The Volkswagen Group is laying the groundwork for the biggest reform process in its history with its aNEW AUTO – Mobility for Generations to Comea Group strategy and future program: the realignment of one of the best automakers to become a leading provider of sustainable mobility on a global scale. To do so, the Group will change its core automotive business, which will include, among other things, the introduction of another 30 or more fully electric vehicles by 2025 and the expansion of battery technology and autonomous driving as new key businesses.
Automotive Group
- International Fleet of the Volkswagen Group the Volkswagen Group Vehicle Air Service
Industrial:
Automobile Industrial Motors
International:
- Volkswagen Group China India Volkswagen Group American Volkswagen Group Automotive Group of Australia Canadian Volkswagen Group Malaysian Volkswagen Group Brazilian Volkswagen Ireland Volkswagen Group Italian Volkswagen Group South African Volkswagen Taiwanese Volkswagen Group UK-based Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen AG, also known as the Volkswagen Group internationally and with its headquarters in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, is a multinational automobile manufacturer. The business creates, produces, and sells motorcycles, passenger and commercial vehicles, engines, and turbomachinery in addition to providing related services including financing, leasing, and fleet management. It held the title of largest carmaker in the world in 2016 and continued to hold it in 2017, 2018 and 2019, selling 10.9 million vehicles. For more than 20 years, it has consistently held the greatest market share in Europe. On the 2020 Fortune Global 500 list of the biggest businesses in the world, it came in at number seven.
In addition to selling passenger cars under the Audi, Bentley, Cupra, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Skoda, and Volkswagen names, the Volkswagen Group also sells motorcycles under the Ducati brand, light commercial vehicles under the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles name, and heavy commercial vehicles under the names of listed subsidiary Traton (IC Bus, International, MAN, Scania and Volkswagen Caminhoes e Onibus). The Automotive Division and the Financial Services Division are its two main divisions, and as of 2008, it had roughly 342 subsidiary businesses. FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen are two other significant joint ventures for Volkswagen in China. The business operates in about 150 nations and has 100 production sites spread across 27 nations.
In 1937, Volkswagen was established in Berlin and incorporated in Wolfsburg with the goal of producing the car that would come to be known as the Beetle. In the 1950s and 1960s, the company’s production increased significantly. It purchased Auto Union in 1965, which went on to build the first Audi vehicles after World War II. In the 1970s, Volkswagen introduced a new line of front-wheel-drive cars, including the Passat, Polo, and Golf, which went on to become its best-selling model. SEAT became Volkswagen’s first non-German brand when the corporation acquired a controlling interest in it in 1986. Volkswagen also gained ownership of Skoda in 1994, Bentley, Lamborghini, and Bugatti in 1998, Scania in 2008, and Ducati, MAN, and Porsche in 2012. Over the past ten years, the company’s operations in China have expanded significantly, making China its largest market.
Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft is a publicly traded business with secondary listings on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and SIX Swiss Exchange in addition to its principal listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, where it is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. Since 1988, it has been traded via American depositary receipts in the US; it is currently traded on the OTC Market. In 2013, Volkswagen ceased trading on the London Stock Exchange. 12.7% of the company’s shares are owned by the Lower Saxony government, giving it legally 20% of the voting rights.
BMW owns Volkswagen, right?
Bentley is a brand of Bentley Motors, a British luxury car manufacturer that is a member of the Volkswagen Group in Germany. Since 1998, Bentley has been a part of VW, with its headquarters in Crewe, United Kingdom.
Walter Owen Bentley and his brother Horace Miller Bentley established Bentley in 1909. In 1931, during the Great Depression, the car manufacturer entered receivership and was bought by British Central Equitable Trust, which eventually turned out to be a front for Rolls-Royce.
In order to isolate the production of Rolls-Royce and Bentley automobiles from the vitally important Rolls-Royce aerospace sector, the British government nationalized Rolls-Royce in 1971 after which Rolls-Royce Motors was established in 1973. Vickers, a multinational engineering company, acquired Rolls-Royce Motors in 1980.
Vickers chose to sell in 1997. Volkswagen AG significantly outbid BMW, with the transaction concluding in 1998. Ferdinand Piech, the head of Volkswagen, believed he had acquired all of the assets of Rolls-Royce and Bentley, but the fine print showed that Rolls-Royce plc, the aerospace company, actually owned the Rolls-Royce brand and mark and had only licensed it to the automotive business. Even worse, it then opted to transfer the license to BMW, its business partner in the production of commercial aircraft engines.
Given that BMW provided the engines for the Rolls-Royce Seraph and Bentley Arnage, Volkswagen had little leverage. Volkswagen produced Rolls-Royce vehicles for BMW between 1998 and 2003, when the company had finished developing the brand-new Phantom.
The Bentley Bentayga, its first SUV, the Continental GT, and the Flying Spur are some of its most recent models. Bentley employs certain VW plants across Europe in addition to Crewe, where it assembles the majority of its vehicles.
Who owns Volkswagen?
The Volkswagen Group of America, a division of the Volkswagen Group, is in charge of overseeing the manufacturing and marketing of Volkswagen automobiles. Every year, the Volkswagen Group of America collaborates with more than 600 privately held Volkswagen dealerships.
Which businesses does BMW own?
The BMW Group is the top premium vehicle and motorcycle manufacturer in the world and also offers top-notch financial and mobility services through its four brands, BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce, and BMW Motorrad. The BMW Group has a global sales network in more than 140 countries, and its production network consists of 31 production and assembly facilities in 15 countries.
The BMW Group sold more than 169,000 motorcycles and over 2.3 million passenger cars in 2020. On revenues of EUR 104.210 billion, the profit before tax for the 2019 fiscal year was EUR 7.118 billion. A total of 126,016 people worked for the BMW Group as of December 31, 2019.
Long-term planning and ethical behavior have always been the cornerstones of the BMW Group’s success. As a result, the company has made resource conservation a core component of its strategy, as well as thorough product accountability and ecological and social sustainability across the whole value chain.
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Who purchased BMW?
Who Owns BMW? The parent firm BMW Group, which also owns the luxury brands Mini and Rolls-Royce, owns BMW, which is based in Munich, Germany.
What does BMW mean?
Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH is known as BMW. In 1917, the Munich company Rapp-Motorenwerke was transformed into BMW. Before being refounded as BMW AG in 1922, the firm was incorporated as Knorr-Bremse AG in 1920. It was the successor to the 1916-founded Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG.
Where is VW’s plant located?
The largest VW manufacturing site is located in Wolfsburg, Germany, the brand’s birthplace. The following automobiles are created at this facility: Touran by Volkswagen
Does Audi utilize VW motors?
Even though it wasn’t as common as the 1.8T and 2.0T, Volkswagen’s VR6 engine wound up in vehicles not bearing the VW mark.
It was first used in the 1992 Corrado and Passat, while it is most frequently associated with the Mk4 and Mk5 Golf R32. In fact, the VR6 was available in the Volkswagen Passat until 2018, according to Car and Driver. This includes the CC built on the Passat. & although though the VR6-powered Phaeton was never sold in the US, according to Car and Driver, the engine continued to be used in the Touareg until 2018.
Through 2010, the 3.2-liter VR6 engine was a choice for the Audi TT as well, according to Car & Driver. According to Automobile, it served as the Porsche Cayenne’s base engine from 2003 to 2007 until being replaced with a 3.6-liter model in 2008. According to MotorReviewer, that engine was carried over into the second-generation 2011-2018 Cayenne and is maybe more dependable than the 3.2-liter model.
However, as we just mentioned, technology sharing is reciprocal. Volkswagen utilized the 4.2-liter V8 engine from Audi while Audi received the VR6 engine. The 2004–2009 S4, the 2008–2012 S5 Coupe, the 2002–2012 A8, the 2010–2014 Q7, the 2005–2010 A6, the 2006–2014 R8, the 2007–2008 and the 2013–2014 RS 4 are all Audi models that have it. Additionally, it is present in the VW Phaeton and the Touareg from 2003 to 2018.