The History of Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge

TRANSPORTER

The Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand was not developed by acquisition, but grew organically within the Volkswagen Group. Officially, the brand was established in July 1995, with a view to pooling all the commercial vehicle expertise and resources of the Group. Although Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles was not established as an independent company, it was organisationally and financially assigned to the Volkswagen brand as the future controlling body for the Group’s international commercial vehicles business. The Group had decided on this step in view of the growing importance of its commercial vehicles business line, which generated sales totalling about 10 billion DM from its main Hanover plant and its international facilities in Poland, Spain, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa in 1995. The product range, including the Caddy, Pick-Up, Transporter and Caravelle as well as the LT and heavy trucks, ref lected the progression of the brand from a lightweight to a heavyweight. In 1996, the Multivan was added to the T4 range, introducing a modern version of a product line that had already formed part of the first Transporter generation.

TRANSPORTER VIELFALT
TRANSPORTER DIVERSITY
TRANSPORTER
TRANSPORTER

The multi-functional Transporter was launched at the right time to satisfy Germany’s hunger for mobility in the era of reconstruction and the post-war economic miracle known as the Wirtschaftswunder. Between 1950 and 1960, strong demand, especially from small businesses in Germany and elsewhere around Europe, boosted production from about 8,000 to 151,000 units per year. In 1954, domestic sales were already overtaken by exports, which were roughly double the sales in Germany from 1958 onwards. The capacity available at Wolfsburg was simply inadequate to meet such strong demand from abroad, especially since booming Beetle sales were keeping the production lines busy. As a result, Transporter production was relocated to the new plant at Hanover, where the first vehicles were assembled in March 1956. In September 1957, production of the Transporter also started at Volkswagen do Brasil, and the versatile all-rounder was to play a key role in the subsequent industrialisation of Brazil.

VW LT
VW LT

The Type 2 had already developed its second role, as a family and leisure vehicle, in 1951, when the Samba minibus and a camper van were introduced. In the 1960s, this product group became an export bestseller, especially in the USA, where the Station Wagon defined a new product line and reached its highest sales figures to date as the preferred means of transport of the f lower-power generation. In 1970, Volkswagen sold some 287,000 Transporters, with almost a quarter going to the USA, and the workforce at Hanover had reached 27,744 by the year-end.

WERK HANNOVER
HANOVER PLANT

The diversification of the commercial vehicle range started in the mid-1970s. With the launch of the LT, Volkswagen ventured into the light truck segment. Its truck know-how was reinforced by a development co-operation agreement with M.A.N., leading to the start of production of a new light truck range at Hanover in 1979. In 1981, Volkswagen gained a foothold in the heavy truck segment in Brazil, having restructured a subsidiary acquired from Chrysler which it then merged with Volkswagen do Brasil to form a commercial vehicle producer. The start of production of 11- and 13-tonne trucks in March 1981 also marked the first step in the internationalisation of commercial vehicle production. The second step was the launch of a pick-up based on the Golf platform. This was first built by Volkswagen of America starting in 1980 and was then put into production, as the Caddy, by Yugoslavian affiliate TAS in 1982. 

TARO
TARO

The expansion of the commercial vehicle range compensated for the export losses in the USA which started in 1972. In the 1980s, only 121,000 third-generation Transporters were sold on the US market. Total Transporter sales remained around 150,000 units per year from 1983 to 1989. Flagging sales of the pioneering model were mainly due to tougher competition and increasing differentiation within the market segment. Volkswagen responded to this trend in 1983 by launching the Caravelle, a well-equipped passenger car which laid the foundation for the independent family and leisure variant of the Transporter range. In addition, Volkswagen added the Taro pick-up, produced in co-operation with Toyota, to its commercial vehicle range. The new models rolled off the production line at Hanover from 1987. The update to the T4, the first Transporter with a front-mounted engine and front-wheel drive, in 1990 was accompanied by extensive automation of the production process. 

LKW-FERTIGUNG IM WERK RESENDE
TRUCK PRODUCTION AT THE RESENDE PLANT
a
TRUCK OF ”SERIES 2000“ RANGE
LARGE SUCTION PRESS AT HANOVER PLANT
LARGE SUCTION PRESS AT HANOVER PLANT

South America was a key growth region for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. The significance of the brand within the Volkswagen Group had been underscored by the introduction of a brand Board of Management as of July 1, 2000. The “Series 2000” truck range, produced at Resende and including 15 models in a number of different weight classes, boosted sales in Brazil by 44 percent to 16,410 trucks and buses in 2000. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles also gained ground in the Brazilian light commercial vehicles segment, reaching a market share of 20 percent. All in all, brand sales grew by six percent to almost 329,000 units and pre-tax profit reached DM 514 million. The Brazilian commercial vehicles business continued to see dynamic growth in the years that followed. In 2003, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles sold 23,000 trucks and 6,000 buses, mainly in South American markets, and established itself as the market leader in the Brazilian truck segment. V WTB underpinned this leading position in 2006 when it launched the Constellation truck range, which was also built at the Puebla plant in Mexico and the Uitenhage plant in South Africa.

ENDMONTAGE DES CADDY IN POZNAN
FINAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CADDY IN POZNAŃ
ERFOLGSGARANTEN AMAROK, TRANSPORTER, CRAFTER UND CADDY
GUARANTORS OF SUCCESS: THE AMAROK, TRANSPORTER, CRAFTER AND CADDY
The specified fuel consumption and emission data does not refer to a single vehicle and is not part of the offer but is only intended for comparison between different types of vehicles. Additional equipment and accessories (additional components, tyre formats, etc.) can alter relevant vehicle parameters such as weight, rolling resistance and aerodynamics, affecting the vehicle's fuel consumption, power consumption, CO2 emissions and driving performance values in addition to weather and traffic conditions and individual driving behavior. Further information on official fuel consumption data and official specific CO2 emissions for new passenger cars can be found in the "Guide to fuel economy, CO2 emissions and power consumption for new passenger car models", which is available free of charge from all sales dealerships and from DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH, Hellmuth-Hirth-Str. 1, D-73760 Ostfildern, Germany and at www.dat.de/co2.