Volkswagen: The Secret History of the World's Biggest Car Company

Volkswagen spent decades building one of the most powerful automotive empires in the world. Volkswagen. Audi. Porsche. Škoda. SEAT. Bentley. Lamborghini. Its enormous scale, engineering expertise and early success in China helped turn the Volkswagen Group into an industrial giant. But the automobile industry changed. Electric vehicles became increasingly important. Software started becoming almost as critical as engines. Chinese automakers became faster and more competitive. Volkswagen's enormous industrial structure — once one of its greatest advantages — became increasingly difficult and expensive to transform. Now Volkswagen is attempting one of the most important restructurings in its history. In this documentary, we explore Volkswagen's extraordinary rise, the Beetle and Golf, its expansion into a global automotive empire, its success in China, the Dieselgate scandal, the transition to electric vehicles, its software challenges, growing competition from Chinese manufacturers, pressure on German factories and the difficult decisions facing the company today. Volkswagen still has enormous advantages. Powerful brands. Global manufacturing. Engineering expertise. Millions of customers. Decades of automotive knowledge. But building great cars may no longer be enough. The modern automobile is becoming a battery, a computer, a software platform and a connected device. Volkswagen mastered the industrial age of the automobile. Now it has to prove it can compete in the digital one. Can one of the world's biggest automakers transform itself fast enough? Watch the full documentary and decide for yourself. Subscribe to The Money Bureau for original documentaries about the world's biggest companies, billion-dollar decisions, corporate failures, business rivalries and extraordinary comeback stories. For educational and documentary purposes only. Nothing in this video constitutes financial or investment advice. 0:00 The Empire of Scale 1:03 When the Industry Shifted 2:28 From Origins to Icons 5:34 The China Strategic Pivot 9:55 The Software Struggle 13:47 The Unthinkable Restructuring #Volkswagen #BusinessDocumentary #AutomotiveIndustry