Porche

Porche

Porsche Automobil Holding, usually shortened to (German pronunciation: , is a Germanwith investments in the,

Porsche SE is headquartered in, a city district of and is owned by the families.

The company was founded in Stuttgart as. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche in 1931 (1875–1951), his son-in-law (1894–1952).

Corporate structure

Porsche SE was the owner of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (Porsche AG), and in June 2007 became a holding company for its stake in Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH (50.1%) (which in turn held 100% of Porsche AG) and Volkswagen AG (50.7%). In August 2009,
Porsche SE and reached an agreement that the two companies would merge in 2011, to form an “Integrated Automotive Group” The management of Volkswagen AG, which had resisted relinquishing the power to control, agreed to be owned (50.7% of Volkswagen AG ordinary shares with voting rights) by Porsche SE in return for VW acquiring control of Porsche AG.

As of the end of 2013, the 50.7% control interest in VW AG is the predominant investment by Porsche SE, and Volkswagen AG in turn controls brands and companies such as, Porsche AG,VW Commercial Vehicles, as well as Volkswagen Financial Services.

(which stands forDoktor Ingenieur Ferdinand Porsche , is responsible for the actual production and manufacture of the Porsche automobile line. The company currently produces and sports cars, the and Macan and the four-door ,

Subsidiaries

Other subsidiaries and operating divisions include Porsche Consulting, Porsche Engineering ,(81.1%)and25%,

Porsche Engineering Group (PEG) has for many years offered consultancy services to various other car manufacturers.And others have consulted Porsche Engineering Group for their cars or engines. The was partly developed by Porsche in 1984. Porsche Engineering Group also helped design the Revolution 60-degree v-twin water-cooled engine and gearbox that is used in their V-Rod motorcycle.

Origin

Founded the company called “Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH” in 1931,with main offices at Kronenstraße 24 in the centre of. Initially, the company offered motor vehicle development work and consulting,but did not build any cars under its own name. One of the first assignments the new company received was from the German government to design a car for the people, that is a “Volkswagen”.This resulted in the, one of the most successful car designs of all time.Thewas developed in 1939 using many components from the Beetle.

Duringproduction turned to the military version of the Volkswagen Beetle, the 52,000 produced, and 15,584 produced.Porsche produced several designs for during the war, losing out toin both contracts that ultimately led to the and the . However, not all this work was wasted, as the chassis Porsche designed for the Tiger I was used as the base for the. Porsche also developed the closing stages of the war, producing two prototypes.

At the end of World War II in 1945, the at to the British. Ferdinand lost his position as Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, and a British Army Major, was put in charge of the factory. (In Wolfsburg, the Volkswagen company magazine dubbed him “The British Major who saved Volkswagen) On 15 December of that year, Ferdinand was arrested for war crimes, but not tried. During his 20-month imprisonment, Ferdinand Porsche’s son, decided to build his own car, because he could not find an existing one that he wanted to buy. He also had to steer the company through some of its most difficult days until his father’s release in August 1947.The first models of what was to become the were built in a small sawmill in Austria.The prototype car was shown to German auto dealers, and when pre-orders reached a set threshold, production was begun. Many regard the 356 as the first Porsche simply because it was the first modelsold by the fledgling company. Porsche commissioned a Zuffenhausen-based company, Reutter Karosserie, which had previously collaborated with the firm on Volkswagen Beetle prototypes, to produce the 356′s steel body. In 1952, Porsche constructed an assembly plant (Werk 2) across the street from Reutter Karosserie; the main road in front of Werk 1, the oldest Porsche building, is now known as Porschestrasse.The 356 was road certified in 1948.

Company logo

Porsche’s company logo was based on the former, which had Stuttgart as its capital (the same arms were used by from 1945-1952, while Stuttgart during these years were the capital of adjacent . The arms ofwas placed in the middle as an, since the cars were made in Stuttgart. The heraldic symbols were combined with the texts “Porsche” and “Stuttgart”, which shows that it is not a coat of arms since heraldic achievements never spell out the name of the nor the armigers home town in the shield.

Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern became part of the present land of in 1952 after the political consolidation of in 1949, and the old design of the arms of Württemberg now only lives on in the Porsche logo. On 30 January 1951, not long before the creation of Baden-Württemberg, Ferdinand Porsche died from complications following a stroke.