history of volkswagen

8/7/2019 History of Volkswagen

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History of Volkswagen

In the early 1930s German Auto Industry was still largely

composed of luxury models, and the average German rarely could affordsomething more than a motorcycle.

Seeking a potential new market, some auto industries begun independent

projects (peoples automobile) Mercedes 170H, Adlers Autobahn, Steyr 55,

Hanomag 1,3L, among others.

Trend of Volkswagen

The trend was not new, as Béla Barényi is credited with having

conceived the basic design in the middle 1920s. Josef Ganz developed the

Standard Superior (going as far as advertising it as the German Volkswagen).

Also, in Czechoslovakia, the Hans Ledwinkas penned Tatra 77, a very

popular car amongst the German elite, was becoming smaller and more

affordable at each revision. In 1933, with many of the above projects still in

development or early stages of production, Adolf Hitler declared his intentions for

a state-sponsored Volkswagen program.

Evolution:

Hitler required a basic vehicle capable of transporting two adults

and three children at 100 km/h (62 mph). The Peoples Car would be available

to citizens of the Third Reich through a savings scheme at 990 Reich mark, about

the price of a small motorcycle (an average income being around 32RM a week).

Despite heavy lobbying in favor of one of the existing projects, Hitler choose to

sponsor an all new, state owned factory.

The engineer chosen for the task was Ferdinand Porsche. By then an already

famed engineer, Porsche was the designer of the Mercedes 170H, and worked at

Steyr for quite some time in the late 1920s.

When he opened his own design studio he landed two separate Auto fur

Jedermann (car for everybody) projects with NSU and Zündapp, both motorcycle



manufacturers. Neither project come to fruition, stalling at prototype phase, but

the basic concept remained in Porsches mind time enough, so on 22 June 1934,

Dr. Ferdinand Porsche agreed to create the Peoples Car for Hitler.

Changes included better fuel efficiency, reliability, ease of use, and economically

efficient repairs and parts.

The intention was that ordinary Europeans would buy the car by means

of a savings scheme (Fünf Mark die Woche musst Du sparen, willst Du im

eigenen Wagen fahren Save five Marks a week, if you want to drive your

own car ), which around 336,000 people eventually paid into. Volkswagen

honored its savings agreements in West Germany (but not in East Germany) after

World War II. Prototypes of the car called the KdF-Wagen (German: Kraft durchFreude strength through joy), appeared from 1936 onwards (the first cars

had been produced in Stuttgart).

The car already had its distinctive round shape and air-cooled, flat-four, rear-

mounted engine.

The VW car was just one of many KdF programs which included things such as

tours and outings.

The prefix Volks (Peoples) was not just applied to cars, but also to

other products in Europe; the Volksempfänger radio receiver for instance. On

28 May 1937, the Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH

was established by the Deutsche Arbeitsfront . It was later renamed Volkswagen

werk GmbH on 16 September 19380

VW Type 82E

Erwin Komenda, the longstanding Auto Union chief

designer, developed the car body of the prototype,

which was recognizably the Beetle known today. It was

one of the first to be evolved with the aid of a wind

tunnel, in use in Germany since the early 1920s.



The building of the new factory started 26 May 1938 in the new town of KdF-

Stadt, now called Wolfsburg, which had been purpose-built for the factory

workers.

This factory had only produced a handful of cars by the time war started in 1939.

None was actually delivered to any holder of the completed saving stamp books,

though one Type 1 Cabriolet was presented to Hitler on 20 April 1938 (his 49th

birthday).

War meant production changed to military vehicles, the Type 82

Kübelwagen (Bucket car) utility vehicle (VWs most common wartime model),

and the amphibious Schwimmwagen which were used to equip the German

forces.

Internal Working Chart of Volkswagen.

Then, it goes on with Legal sales ³Consultant´.

8 New Product Pricing a. Impact of new product on the entire product portfolio

b. Value Analysis (internal & external)c. Competition and alternative competitive technologies

d. Differing value segments (price, value, and need)

These steps may be iterated as needed. Some steps may be

eliminated. To reduce the time that the NPD process takes, many companies are

completing several steps at the same time (referred to as concurrent engineering

or time to market). Most industry leaders see new product development as a

proactive process where resources are allocated to identify market changes and

seize upon new product opportunities before they occur (in contrast to a reactivestrategy in which nothing is done until problems occur or the competitor

introduces an innovation). Many industry leaders see new product development

as an ongoing process (referred to as continuous develo pment ) in which the entire

organization is always looking for opportunities.



Development as a universally accepted: A universally acceptable definition for Fuzzy Front End or a

dominant framework has not been developed so far. In a glossary of PDMA, it ismentioned that the Fuzzy Front End generally consists of three tasks: strategic

planning, concept generation, and, especially, pre-technical evaluation.

These activities are often chaotic, unpredictible, and unstructured. In comparison,

the subsequent new product development process is typically structured,

predictable, and formal. The term Fuzzy Front End was first popularized by Smith

and Reinertsen (1991) R.G.Cooper (1988) describes the early stages of NPPD as a

four step process in which ideas are generated (I),subjected to a preliminary

technical and market assessment(II) and merged to coherent product concepts(III)which are finally judged for their fit with existing product strategies and portfolios

(IV). In a more recent paper, Cooper and Edgett (2008) affirm that vital

predevelopment activities include:

1. Preliminary market assessment.

2. Technical assessment.

3. Source-of-supply-assessment: suppliers and partners or alliances.

4. Market research : market size and segmentation analysis,VoC (voice of

customer) research.5. Product concept testing

6. Value-to-the customer assessment

7. Product definition

8. Business and financial analysis.

history of volkswagen

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