Vehicles

#TBT: The ultimate beach cruiser: The 1974 Volkswagen Acapulco Thing

The Volkswagen Type 181 – commonly referred to as “The Thing” – has always been a fun summer classic for drivers who enjoy a cool and wildly original type of ride. The removable doors, retractable soft top and folding windshield provided a driving experience unlike any other Volkswagen. The 181 has also spawned one of the more unusual models ever to wear the Volkswagen badge – the Acapulco Thing. The Thing variant was specifically designed for two legendary, high-end resorts in Acapulco, a po

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Partnerships

Team Volkswagen kicks off Drive Bigger program to get charities back on the field

As the world works toward a new normal in the COVID-19 era, sports like soccer have had to adapt and try new approaches. With teams and players slowly returning to the field, the demands on soccer-related charities remain high, with programs delayed or cancelled and needs greater than ever. To help address those challenges, Volkswagen of America has worked with U.S. Soccer Men’s and Women’s National Team players who serve as brand ambassadors on Team Volkswagen. These ten ambassadors have cho

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Philanthropy

Volkswagen dealers across the nation participate in Community-Driven Atlas Initiative

Volkswagen and its network of dealerships are supporting local communities during COVID-19 through the Community-Driven Atlas Initiative, a program that allows dealerships the ability to re-purpose their service loaner vehicles for community service endeavors like delivering food, masks and other essential goods to individuals in need. “We have been involved with a number of organizations in our communities for years now,” said Kristen Walker, marketing director for Coastal Volkswagen. “But w

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Vehicles

#TBT – Volkswagen Golf Country

Built in 1990, the Golf Country was an early foray into the crossover SUV category for Volkswagen and even predated the Toyota RAV4—one of the first mass-market CUVs—by four years. With just 7,735 vehicles produced in two years from 1990 to 1991, the rugged, off-road worthy Golf Mark 2 variant - with lifted suspension and all-wheel drive - is now a collectible modern classic. Volkswagen introduced the “Montana” concept at the Geneva Motor Show in 1989. At the time, the off-road Golf Mark 2 va

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Company

#TBT: History of the Volkswagen Passat in the U.S.

  Most Volkswagen fans think that the Golf is currently the longest-lived Volkswagen nameplate, but that honor actually belongs to the Passat, which went on sale a year before the Golf in Europe, in 1973. Based on the Audi 80, the Passat was initially sold in two- and four-door fastback sedan and three- and five-door hatchback form, with a wagon joining one year later. In the U.S., the Passat was marketed as the Dasher, and sold in all three versions from 1974. More than 222,000 w

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#TBT: One million vehicles strong – three times over

  At any car factory, the one-millionth vehicle serves as a milestone of success. With Volkswagen of America’s Chattanooga plant hitting that mark last week, it’s worth looking back at some memorable moments for Volkswagen production– and what’s coming next. Sixty-five years ago this August, the one-millionth Volkswagen rolled off the assembly line in Wolfsburg. Following World War II, the Volkswagen factory started slowly producing the Beetle and the Bus, but by 1955 the Beetle w

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Company

#TBT: Learn about the past, present, and future of mobility with virtual Autostadt tours

With public attractions like museums and theme parks largely closed around the world, many are turning to virtual tours. Autostadt, the automotive theme park next to the Volkswagen production factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, has recently reopened, but developed several virtual experiences. A coloring project lets people virtually race through the park in a personalized ID. BUZZ concept vehicle, and a series of “sofa tours” allow a closer look at the past, present, and future of mobility. Bring

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Company

How the Volkswagen Group’s worldwide logistics teams help fight COVID-19

As one of the world’s largest automakers, the Volkswagen Group has a special expertise in getting essential parts to the right place at the right time. Over the past three months, that expertise in shipping and logistics has taken on a new mission: Finding, transporting and in some cases setting up production for personal protective equipment needed to fight the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide. In the United States, Volkswagen worked with a consortium of other manufacturers and suppliers, includi

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Vehicles

The road to amazing sound, driven by Volkswagen, Fender and Panasonic

While stay-at-home orders are easing in some states, most are months away from re-opening concert venues. Many musicians are continuing to share their talents by holding virtual performances, giving fans a show while raising funds for those impacted by the pandemic. And the most advanced sound system available for listening to those events – or even finding a few minutes of solitude with your favorite tunes under lockdown – may be in your vehicle. On Thursday, May 14 at 8 pm ET, Volkswage

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Community

How Volkswagen owners are supporting COVID-19 relief efforts

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, Volkswagen drivers across the nation are pitching in to help their neighbors. Community service is nothing new to Marqese Singleton, and when the pandemic hit his community in early March, he had no plans of slowing down. A parent liaison for Hawthorne Avenue Elementary School in Newark, New Jersey, Singleton has distributed free, fresh vegetables to local families every week for the past three years. On Fridays, he picks up unused produce in his white 2013 Vo

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Company

Volkswagen drives bigger to fight the COVID-19 outbreak

Across America and around the world, Volkswagen has rolled out several new efforts to help customers and communities fight the coronavirus. Earlier this month, Volkswagen of America and fabrics supplier Faurecia announced a collaborative effort to manufacture Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) items, with the first batch shipped to New York City’s Javits Center and other area hospitals. Working with Volkswagen strategy and logistics, Faurecia was able to quickly convert one of its factor

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Vehicles

#TBT: The ARVW, the most aerodynamic Volkswagen ever built

Aerodynamics play a key role in every modern vehicle. The less drag a vehicle generates when moving through the air, the less energy it consumes and the more quietly it moves. Over the years, automakers have experimented with extreme vehicle shapes to demonstrate the innate relationship between drag and power. Few have been more radical than the Aerodynamic Research Volkswagen of 1980, a single-seat arrow that remains the most aerodynamic vehicle ever built with a VW badge. Sparked by the oi

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Community

#TBT: Three big brands that started small with a Volkswagen

Many successful companies trace their heritage to a small business that started as a passion project. Surprisingly, some of these now-famous companies credit a Volkswagen model as a key player in the early days of their business. Domino’s Delivery Beetle Brothers Tom and James Monaghan founded Domino’s Pizza in 1960 when they bought a small pizzeria in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The brothers purchased the store for only $900 and decided to keep the original name, DomiNick’s. They were given

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Community

Dealerships perform acts of kindness during COVID-19 crisis

From organizing senior meal deliveries to leading donation drives, Volkswagen dealerships across the country are doing their part to help find new and inventive ways to support their neighbors during these difficult times. Below are three examples of dealerships driving something bigger in their local communities. To show their appreciation to essential workers, Auburn Volkswagen in Washington decided to come up with multiple plans to help address the growing need in their community. “My

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Vehicles

Watch the Volkswagen ID.3 in VR with this DIY VR headset tutorial

WHAT YOU’LL NEED                                          VR headset cardboard template Shoe box or pizza box Printer Scissors Syringe or plastic straw Plastic water bottle Xacto knife Glue gun or epoxy Rubber band Smartphone HOW IT WORKS In this tutorial, we will first make the homemade lens for the DIY VR headset. Later you will have to make the cardboard enclosure using the printable templates provided here. The lens used in these VR headsets hel

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Vehicles

Liven up your video conference calls with a Volkswagen-approved background

Click here to download this image. For many people, working from home has become the new normal as the nation combats the coronavirus outbreak. If you’re one of those who need to take part in video conference calling, suddenly putting your home on temporary display can be a challenge for any number of reasons. To help liven your next video chat up, Volkswagen went into its image archives and developed these backgrounds. All have been properly sized and edited to fit into those video-co

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Company

A new look for the iconic Volkswagen logo

Last year, some 6.2 million vehicles were built worldwide with a “VW” on their grilles. Those two letters have been melded together for decades and have come to represent one of the most recognizable brands on Earth. So, how do you update an icon? Through one of the largest rebranding campaigns in the world, Volkswagen has debuted a refreshed and digitally friendly re-imagination of its signature logo, now rolling out to the U.S. market. The new design is a refreshed, minimalist ta

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Community

#TBT: The Petersen Museum on The Thing

Welcome to #ThrowbackThursday, a new weekly series exploring the far reaches of Volkswagen history. Please enjoy this story on the Type 181 (a.k.a. "The Thing") courtesy of the Petersen Museum. The first thing one might ask about this car is “what is it?” The simple answer is “it’s a Thing.” This was only true in the United States and Europe, however. In Mexico and South America, the simply shaped vehicle was known as the Safari, and in the United Kingdom it was sold as the Trekker. It was

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Company

Women leaders at Volkswagen talk about the road ahead

March is Women’s History Month and offers an opportunity to look at the progress women have made in the automotive industry and the challenges that remain. We asked four leading women from Volkswagen of America to share their insights about breaking into a male-dominated industry, their role models, and where they want to take their careers in the future. How would you describe your role and responsibilities at Volkswagen? Shani Jayant, Principal UX designer, Innovation and Engineerin

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Company

Volkswagen brings augmented reality to life along the factory line

In just the past few years, augmented reality has gone from a science-fiction idea to apps that lets you see how clothes fit, where to put your new home appliance or even to test how well you could have piloted the Apollo lunar lander. Now Volkswagen has put augmented reality to work in its U.S. factory. As the Chattanooga factory ramps up production of the new Atlas Cross Sport, and lays groundwork for assembling the next generation of Volkswagen electric vehicles planned to begin in 2022,

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Vehicles

The next electric revolution from Volkswagen begins with the ID.4 SUV

Electric vehicles for millions, not just millionaires. That’s been a goal for Volkswagen Group since its commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change last year, driving its aim to be carbon neutral across its fleet, production and administration globally by 2050. Here’s the first big step toward making that goals a reality in the United States: the near-production version of the ID.4 electric SUV that is anticipated to go on sale in the next 12 months. Based on the ID.CROZZ concept, th

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Special Event

Volkswagen celebrates world debut of mobility research as contributor to exhibit at Guggenheim Museum

In an effort to reframe the global debate about what urbanism means today, Volkswagen experts have teamed up with architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas, and AMO, an internationally acclaimed research and design studio for the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), to collaborate on a project that reveals the radical changes and transformations being made to the world’s countryside. This month marks the public opening of the rotunda exhibition, “Countryside, The Future,” at the Guggenheim

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Philanthropy

Helping train the next generation of auto technicians

Volkswagen recognizes the need for vehicles to be in the hands of students to help educate and equip tomorrow’s technicians with the tools necessary for future employment. Over the next few months, Volkswagen will donate 31 Atlas SUVs and diagnostics equipment to trade schools and career centers across the country. The goal? To help address the growing need for trained automotive technicians who understand both the hardware and the increasingly complex software in modern vehicles. With

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Company

Science fiction becomes real as Volkswagen puts quantum computing to work

Chances are, if you didn’t use your smartphone to navigate traffic today, you will soon. Millions of people rely on their navigation apps to not just point them in the right direction, but plot out a route around traffic on the road. These systems all work well, but they’re limited in their ability to map only individual vehicles rather than taking the entire system into account. What if a more powerful computing system could provide navigation that anticipated where traffic was building up a

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Community

Megan Rapinoe goes from soccer hero to Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year

It was impossible to ignore soccer superstar and social activist Megan Rapinoe in 2019. She led the U.S Women's National Soccer Team to a monumental world championship victory in July and made repeated headlines for her unapologetic stance against gender discrimination and racism. And now she can add one more honor to her banner year: Being named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year, the fourth woman in the award’s 66-year history to win it unaccompanied. Rapinoe is the only woman

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Company

Volkswagen teams with The Conservation Fund to increase the Cherokee National Forest

From fresh drinking water and wildlife habitats, to helping fight climate change and providing natural resources, American forests play an essential role in our daily lives. To help protect forests in the United States from development and fragmentation, Volkswagen, through a sponsorship of The Conservation Fund, will donate $1.2 million to help increase the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee by roughly 1,500 acres and support other woodlands projects. “We are excited about our partnership

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