This concentrated ownership gives the family significant influence over company decisions, while the rest is held by public shareholders and funds. BMW’s structure allows the company to quickly adapt to technological advancements and market shifts, thanks to its focused stakeholder base. It’s a model that emphasizes stability, innovation, and maintaining premium brand status—core elements that continue to drive BMW’s success worldwide. This clear-cut ownership setup provides the company with agility and a strong sense of direction without the complex entanglements seen in larger conglomerates like Volkswagen.

How to Learn to Work on Cars: 8 Simple Steps

Lancia is one of the best-known car brands in the motorsports industry, including plenty of famous rally cars. Today, they’re more of a commuter special, and you have to be based in Italy to get your hands on one today. Famous Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer Maserati was once of Ferrari heritage. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company’s headquarters are now in Modena right near its former brother. Today, the company is owned by Stellantis, as it has been since 2021. General Motors luxury marque produces beautiful cars with a reputation for class, quality design and opulence.

BMW and Volkswagen have different product lineups.

Its ownership structure enables it to target a broad market spectrum, balancing technological innovation with mass-market appeal. BMW, on the other hand, concentrates on maintaining its premium, luxury image, driven by a focused ownership structure that emphasizes quality, exclusivity, and technological innovation. These differences in ownership influence their market approaches—Volkswagen aims for broad reach and versatility, while BMW focuses on exclusivity and cutting-edge technology. Both strategies succeed, showcasing how ownership shapes not just company governance but also market positioning and brand identity.

Today, the German brand offers a much more expansive choice of cars and SUVs when compared to its parent company. Alongside its combustion-engined models, Audi has been increasing the production of its electric e-tron lineup, with the Q6 e-tron joining the ranks alongside SUVs such as the Q4 e-tron and Q8 e-tron. The company produces about 10 million cars each year and is a world leader in the hybrid market, having surpassed a total of 200,000 hybrid sales in Australia between 2001 and 2021. Toyota also produces heavy commercial vehicles under the Hino brand. BMW focuses on luxury performance vehicles, emphasizing innovation and driving experience. In contrast, Volkswagen produces reliable, practical cars aimed at the mass market, offering affordability and dependability.

Does VW own 100% of Audi?

The automotive industry is intensely competitive—so much so that any notion of shared ownership is unlikely in the foreseeable future. Both brands prefer to keep their independence, focusing on innovation, expanding their product lines, and outperforming each other in the race for automotive excellence. Many people wonder if Volkswagen and BMW share any kind of corporate relationship, whether through joint ventures, ownership stakes, or business alliances. While both German automakers sometimes cooperate on specific projects or industry initiatives, they function as separate companies. They occasionally participate in joint ventures with other automakers or technology firms, but these are limited to certain areas like autonomous driving or sustainable mobility. As of now, no direct corporate relationship exists between the two—meaning neither owns shares in the other nor exerts control over its operations.

For decades now, this company has produced some of the most amazing vehicles to grace the asphalt worldwide. Even today, they manage to sell over 2 million units per year, making them one of the top 20 most profitable car manufacturers in 2020. And considering how massive that output is, it’s no wonder that the parent company, BMW Group, owns a few other brands as well. While Seat will stay out of America, Cupra has plans to enter the U.S. market by the end of this decade with a wider range of models than originally anticipated. By this point, it’s become commonplace for brands under Volkswagen to reassess their electrified future, and Cupra is no exception. One of the brands that fall under the Volkswagen Group’s progressive labels, Audi has the goal of pushing the conglomerate towards an electric future.

Volkswagen Group China

The brand also prides itself on its design philosophy that encapsulates art and science in a seamless combination. They produce a range of sedans, roadsters, crossovers and SUVs with this philosophy in mind. Headquarters in Martorell Spain, SEAT was founded on 9 May 1950 by the Instituto Nacional de Industria, a Spanish state-owned industrial holding company. If you haven’t drooled over a Lamborghini at least once in your life, you must be crazy. The luxury sports car and SUV brand produce some of the most desirable pairs of wheels in the world.

• The company survived by producing cars for the British Army, and in 1948 the British Government handed the company back over to the German state, and it was managed by former Opel chief Heinrich Nordhoff.
• Although some people believe that BMW has been owned by other automotive firms in the past, neither Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, or any other German manufacturer has ever owned BMW.
• Founded in 1967 and acquired fully by Daimler in 2005, AMG produces iconic models such as the AMG GT, C63 AMG, and E63 AMG.
• Volkswagen AG significantly outbid BMW, with the transaction concluding in 1998.
• What companies does Volkswagen own is the commonly searched line on Google?

Skoda is sold in over 100 countries and has the second-highest profit margin of all Volkswagen brands after Porsche. Bentley has had a colourful history, jumping around between ownership since it was founded in 1919. The company is known for its luxury sports tourers and stood on its own two feet for 12 years before being taken over by Rolls Royce, then Vickers PLC, before being purchased by Volkswagen in 1998. The popular German car manufacturer has an infamous history, but still reigns supreme as one of the most popular car brands. Founded in 1937, Volkswagen was originally founded to become a car for the German populous.

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 Group, through Porsche AG, owns a 45% stake in the Bugatti Rimac joint venture. Bugatti, formerly a wholly owned Volkswagen brand, was spun into this partnership with Rimac, a Croatian EV hypercar manufacturer.

• Formed in 1926, the company has existed under various names up until now.
• Ferruccio passed on the organization in 1974 and offered it to a couple of financial backers, who were obliged to petition for financial protection in 1978.
• Lexus was established in the late ’80s to serve as Toyota’s luxury vehicle division.
• Volkswagen uses these partnerships to develop China-specific vehicles, including affordable EVs under new sub-brands like ID. family for China.
• The two companies are separate entities and have no ownership stake in each other.

The car brand is the biggest in India and has an extensive portfolio of passenger, commercial and defence vehicles. Lotus is a niche car brand, so don’t feel too shocked if you haven’t heard of it. The low-volume sports car maker was created by two university graduates and specialise in high-performance cars that have is bmw owned by volkswagen a minimalistic aesthetic.

The combination of ReachNow with Car2Go created one of the largest car-sharing networks in the world, offering a wide range of vehicles, including electric cars, in urban centers around the globe. The Oxford plant is known for its highly efficient production techniques, as well as its focus on sustainability. It produces a large number of MINI vehicles each year, contributing to the company’s overall sales and market presence in the compact car segment. BMW Group Classic is a subsidiary of BMW that preserves and maintains classic BMW models, as well as offering services for owners of vintage BMW cars and motorcycles.

While officially owned by the Volkswagen Group, Bentley joined the Audi Group in 2022 to help strengthen the push for electrification in the luxury segment. However, Bentley finds itself in a similar position to Audi in that its initial plans to switch to EVs exclusively have been delayed. The original target was 2030, but Bentley announced it would carry on producing its long-standing combustion-powered cars until 2035.