Volkswagen¶
Volkswagen was established in 1937 by the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) in Berlin. In the early 1930s, cars were a luxury – most Germans could afford nothing more elaborate than a motorcycle and only one German out of 50 owned a car. Seeking a potential new market, some car makers began independent "people's car" projects – the Mercedes 170H, BMW 3/15, Adler AutoBahn, Steyr 55, and Hanomag 1.3L, among others.
Volkswagen Type 1 (a.k.a. Volkswagen Beetle, Bug)¶
Production: 1938 - 2003 Lead Engineer: Ferdinand Porsche
Volkswagen Type 2 (a.k.a. Combi, Transporter, Multivan)¶
Production: 1949 - present
The Volkswagen Type 2, known officially (depending on body type) as the Transporter, Kombi or Microbus, or, informally, as the Bus (US), Camper (UK) or Bulli (Germany), is a forward control light commercial vehicle introduced in 1950 by the German automaker Volkswagen as its second car model. Following – and initially deriving from – Volkswagen's first model, the Type 1 (Beetle), it was given the factory designation Type 2. Volkswagen Type 2 - Wikipedia
The Volkswagen Transporter / Multivan has been built on revisions Volkswagen Group's T platform for over 70 years.
The 2022 Multivan switched to the MQB Platform that underpins many of VW’s current passenger cars, including the Golf hatchback, Passat sedan and Tiguan SUV.
Volkswagen Group platforms¶
The German automotive concern, Volkswagen Group has, since the 1970s, developed a series of shared automobile platforms for their motor vehicles.
Volkswagen Group MQB platform¶
The Volkswagen Group MQB platform is the company's strategy for shared modular design construction of its transverse, front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout (optional front-engine, four-wheel-drive layout) automobiles. It was first introduced in the Volkswagen Golf Mk7 in late 2012. Volkswagen spent roughly $8bn developing this new platform and the cars employing it. The platform underpins a wide range of cars from the supermini class to the mid size SUV class.
VW Golf
VW Passat
VW Tiguan
VW Multivan T7