Volkswagen Group is a German multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. It designs, engineers, manufactures and distributes passenger cars, commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines and
turbo machinery, and offers related services including financing, leasing and fleet management. It was the
worlds second-largest motor vehicle manufacturer by 2011 unit production and has maintained the largest market share in Europe for over two decades. Volkswagen was founded in 1937 to manufacture the car which would become known as the Beetle. Volkswagen launched a new generation of front-wheel drive vehicles in the 1970s, including the Passat, Polo and Golf; the latter became its bestseller.