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Company

How the Volkswagen Apprenticeship Program makes an impact with jobs

Across the country, more than 530,000 people are chasing the dream of a career through an apprenticeship program. These programs combine on-the-job training with classroom work to help enable tech-focused workers to graduate with in-demand skills – and often, a job offer waiting for them. The Volkswagen Apprenticeship Program began at the Chattanooga plant in 2010, training workers who graduate certified to work in any Volkswagen plant worldwide. To mark National Apprenticeship Week, we asked

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Community

Taking the VW van life road to cosplay adventure

For many people, the thought of quitting a job and traveling the United States sounds like a dream. For Justin and Megan Webb, it’s a reality. Last year, the Tennessee couple decided they had nothing to lose by pursuing a passion. They sold almost everything they had, donated what they could, and kept only a box each of sentimental belongings. They then traveled to Boise, Idaho, where they picked up the vehicle they would live in and drive across the country—a 1984 Volkswagen Vanagon West

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Company

Exploring the VW and MoMA partnership for art education

At its best, modern art challenges our way of seeing the world around us. It’s that sense of innovation, of searching for new thoughts and ways of thinking, that has led Volkswagen to partner with The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 (MoMA) since 2011. Together, Volkswagen and MoMA have given life to an array of museum exhibitions, educational opportunities and special event programming over the past seven years. Volkswagen became lead sponsor of MoMA Education in 2015, supporting e

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Vehicles

Watch the Volkswagen Atlas come together in two minutes

If you’ve never been inside a car factory, you’re missing out on an amazing display of technology – as demonstrated by the Volkswagen Atlas. Earlier this month, the 100,000th Volkswagen Atlas rolled off the production line in Chattanooga, Tenn., a notable milestone for the 3,700 Volkswagen team members who work there. Since production began in late 2016, the largest Volkswagen model ever has found a new home with thousands of American families thanks to its fun-to-drive chassis, huge interior

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Electric

Meet the Volkswagen platform designed to spawn 10 million electric vehicles

It’s not often that you get to see the future of transportation in such nuts-and-bolts detail. But this isn’t just any future vehicle chassis. In German, it’s called the “Modulare E-Antriebs-Baukasten,” which provides the source of its acronym at Volkswagen: MEB. Translated, its name means “modular electric-drive toolkit,” and it’s designed to be the basic building block of the Volkswagen brand’s electric transportation future. The MEB will form the basis of the future anticipated Volk

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Magazine

The Legendary Rabbit Name Makes a 2019 Comeback

It was fast. It was nimble. It was fun. And it had attitude. The original 1983 Mk1 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI sported red plaid seats, snowflake wheels, and a golf ball shift knob. It helped create a brand new category of sports car; the hot hatch. Now, the Rabbit is back for 2019 as a special edition model — the GTI Rabbit Edition is the first GTI to pay tribute to the Rabbit heritage since the 2003 20th Anniversary vehicle. Here’s why we should all be excited. Enthusiasm builds The GTI has

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Beetle

With the 2019 Volkswagen Beetle Final Edition, we say #ByeByeBeetle

It’s official: The 2019 Volkswagen Beetle will be the last production year of the iconic Volkswagen Beetle, exactly seven decades after it first came to the United States in 1949. But the Beetle will be getting a year-long sendoff, beginning with special Beetle Final Edition models for 2019 and continuing over the next several months. “The loss of the Beetle after three generations, over nearly seven decades, will evoke a host of emotions from the Beetle’s many devoted fans,” said Hinrich

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Vehicles

What do you call the game of spotting a VW Beetle?

First: It is the official position of Volkswagen of America that no one should throw or receive a punch (or even a tap for that matter) simply upon seeing a Volkswagen Beetle. Volkswagen does not condone any form of violence, especially over an icon of the peace-and-love era like the Beetle. That said, it is well known that generations of bored American children on the road have invented and handed down a game around the Beetle. But there’s also a lingering debate that has never been sett

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Community

Capturing the past and present at Wolfsgart 2018

Nestled in the northern beauty of Vermont lies Burlington, a small town hugging the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. For one weekend each summer, this small town becomes the travel spot for Volkswagen enthusiasts around the northeast region.  The attraction: Wolfsgart. Celebrating all varieties of European makes and models, Wolfsgart’s roots trace back to Volkswagen and to this day a large majority of the event is focused on the love of the People’s Car. This year, Volkswagen attended Wol

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Community

Cruising the coast in air-cooled style for Treffen 2018

If you were lucky enough to be driving along the West Coast last month, you might have seen a few more classic Volkswagens than usual, and a couple that you might not have recognized. That was the 2018 edition of the Highway 1 Treffen, the annual 1,700-odd-mile cruise from Canada to Mexico along some of the most beautiful roads in America. This year, dozens of VW Buses, Beetles, Karmann Ghias, Type 412s and other models from Volkswagen’s air-cooled era took part in the caravan. The Volksw

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Company

Celebrating Ten Years of Volkswagen in Chattanooga

Ten years ago, Volkswagen made it official: It wanted to build one of the world’s most advanced automotive assembly factories in the hills outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. Since then, a series of successful milestones — from the 700,000th Passat to the new expansion for the growing Atlas line — have demonstrated how VW and Chattanooga continue to build a partnership for the future. The initial VW investment of approximately $1 billion in Chattanooga and the commitment to hire 2,000 team mem

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Vehicles

VW Car-Net Gets a Boost

Tech has turned our cars into more than just a way to get from point A to point B. Take the features that are part of Volkswagen Car-Net®. They enable you to access navigation information, receive alerts, and manage entertainment, among other capabilities Now, there’s even more to love about Car-Net®. Three new features —  Parking Information (powered by Parkopedia), Valet Alert, and Curfew Alert, — provide valuable peace of mind and convenience. The new trio is part of the Security &

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Magazine

Jetta Haus Goes Beyond the Driver’s Seat

Bass reverberating deep in your chest. Infinite selfies in a mirrored room. Delicious drinks and tasty treats. The Volkswagen Jetta Haus pop-up events offered something for every sense in a perfect weekend mashup of music, food, and forward-thinking experiences. For Jetta and VW enthusiasts, the Jetta Haus pop-up events in May were more than just an opportunity to get behind the wheel of the all-new 2019 Jetta. This pop-up party toured Chicago, Miami, New York, and Los Angeles and gave gu

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Company

Volkswagen’s U.S. factory cheers the first grads from its on-site high school

Imagine as a high school student studying Chaucer in one period, and then walking a few steps to program a state-of-the-art welding robot or 3D printer. That’s a glimpse of what a school day is like at the high school held on the grounds of Volkswagen’s Chattanooga factory. Volkswagen Chattanooga, Chattanooga State Community College and Hamilton County Schools recently celebrated the first graduating class from the Mechatronics Akademie, a two-year mechatronics program at Volkswagen Chatt

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Vehicles

Driving the first-generation Volkswagen Jetta with its 2019 successor

The 1980 model year was a big one for Volkswagen of America. Known at the time mostly for the Rabbit hatchback, VW brought out four new models that year – the Rabbit convertible, the Rabbit-based Pickup, the then-new Vanagon (including its hip camper variant) and an all-new sedan named after the German word for “jet stream:” the Jetta. It was not many years later that the Jetta became the best-selling German model in America, with more than 3.2 million models sold since. With the new 2019 Jet

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Community

Unleashing the Rrrrr-roar of the Golf Rs at WITW

For one weekend in April each year, the small village of Fontana, North Carolina, hosts a gathering of Volkswagen friends and owners casually known as WITW. What ties these cars together, apart from the VW badge, is that their engines all produce a beloved exhaust note. This year I joined over 100 of these special cars for some fun, both in the village and on the famous roads that surround it. The Golf R32 and Golf R cars have been a staple in the VW enthusiast community ever since the first

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Company

Meet the sausage that’s one of Volkswagen’s most popular products

In the official Volkswagen parts list, it's item no. 199 398 500 A -- one of the world’s most unique sausages, and a Volkswagen original celebrating its 45th year of production. First created in 1973, Volkswagen has made its own currywurst sausage ever since, and in the process turned it into a symbol of the company throughout Europe. While it’s a staple of the factory cafeterias in Wolfsburg and other European Volkswagen plants for breakfast or lunch, it’s also sold in grocery stores und

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Motorsports

Why VW’s first electric race car previews the future of EVs

Last week, Volkswagen Motorsport revealed the first all-electric race car in the company’s history. Built  with the goal of setting a new record for the race up Pikes Peak in June, the I.D. R Pikes Peak combines cutting-edge motorsports engineering with Volkswagen’s growing expertise in electric mobility. And while the custom-built race car was designed for one purpose, it also previews the technology that will help make electric vehicles a more mainstream reality. Pikes Peak ranks as the wor

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Magazine

A designer’s look at the 2019 Volkswagen Jetta

How do you design a new car? Boldly and carefully. The all-new 2019 Volkswagen Jetta reflects years of exacting design work by a dedicated team that had to anticipate American market trends, meet a host of engineering requirements, and eventually craft a look that can appeal to millions. “Cars are always reflecting society, fashion, architecture — they’re part of the development of mankind,” says Klaus Bischoff, head of design for Volkswagen. “From the beginning, we said we need to have a

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Company

How the Volkswagen Atlas Tanoak concept pickup came to life

The idea was simple – “build a modern Volkswagen pickup truck” – but the execution was anything but. The Volkswagen Atlas Tanoak concept vehicle unveiled at the New York International Auto Show reflects months of work by dozens of VW designers and engineers to build something that has not existed before; a real mid-size pickup,  designed for American tastes, from the highly flexible platform architectures of the Volkswagen Group. The result was the hit of the show, precisely because it mix

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