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The Volvo Group is a Swedish supplier of commercial vehicles such as trucks, buses and construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, aerospace components and financial services. The then auto manufacturer was founded on April 14, 1927 in the city of Gothenburg, as a spin-off from the roller ball bearing maker SKF. Volvo delisted from NASDAQ in June, 2007, but remains listed on the Stockholm exchange.

Volvo means “I roll” in Latin, conjugated from “volvere”. The name Volvo was originally registered in May 1911 as a separate company within SKF AB and as a registered trademark with the intention to be used for a special series of ball bearing, but this idea was only used for a short period of time and SKF decided to use “SKF” as the trademark for all its bearing products.

The company AB Volvo had no activities until 10 August, 1926 when the SKF Sales Manager Assar Gabrielsson and Engineer Gustav Larson, after one year of preparations involving the production of ten prototypes, set up the car-manufacturing business Volvo AB within SKF group. Volvo AB was introduced at the Stockholm stock exchange in 1935 and SKF then decided to sell its shares in the company.

The first series produced Volvo automobile, the Volvo ÖV 4, left the factory on 14 April, 1927 which became the official date for the founding of Volvo.

In 1999 Volvo sold its car division to Ford. Repeated reports in the media about Ford selling off its Volvo brand have been refuted by the company.

Like its competitors, the Mini, the Citroën 2CV and the Fiat 500, the original-shape Beetle long outlasted predictions of its lifespan. It maintains a very strong following worldwide, being regarded as something of a “cult” car owing to its 1960s association with the hippie movement. Currently, there is a wide array of clubs that are concerned with the Beetle. The fans are quite diverse. Looks include the resto-look, Cal Look, German-look, resto-Cal Look, buggies, Baja bugs, old school, Disney’s Herbie the Love Bug replicas, ratlook, etc. Part of their cult status is attributed to being one of a few cars with an air-cooled, horizontally-opposed engine design and the consequent ease of repair and modification as opposed to the more conventional and technically complex watercooled engine design. The original flat-four boxer design had less than 200 moving parts.

In the late 1990s, a group of Volkswagen enthusiasts formed Volkswagenism, a satirical religion based off of owners devoted loyalty to the Beetle, and the company. Under the leadership of founder Jason Gaudet, this “religion” has gained notoriety through radio, television and print coverage from around the world…turning ordinary fans of the car into Volkswagenists.

By 2002, over 21 million Type 1s had been produced.

On July 30, 2003, the last Type 1 rolled off the production line in Puebla, Puebla, Mexico. It was car number 21,529,464, and was immediately shipped off to the company’s museum in Wolfsburg, Germany. In true Mexican fashion, a mariachi band serenaded the last car in the 68-year-old history. The last car was nicknamed El Rey, which is Spanish for “The King”. The last 3000 type 1s were called the “Última Edición” or the last edition.

In the United States, Volkswagen enthusiasts frequent large Volkswagen-themed car shows, especially in the summer months. Many of these shows feature camping, a car show called a “show ‘n’ shine”, drag racing, parts swap meet, raffles, burnout contests, and other events. Die-hard and loyal “VW-heads” attend these shows regularly, often traveling 500 miles (800 km) or more (even abroad) to attend their favorite event.

In the winter, a group of drivers of the “split window” bus model (1951-1967 Microbuses, trucks, campers, and panel vans) drive from Willits, CA, to Mt. Shasta CA, largely on unpaved back roads. This event is called the “Mt. Shasta Snow Trip Challenge” and is a good example of VW enthusiasts’ trust in the durability of their 40-plus-year-old cars.

Toyota Motor Corporation is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan, and currently is the world’s largest automaker. In terms of name recognition, Toyota is also the only car manufacturer to appear in the top 10 of the BrandZ name recognition ranking.

In 1934, while still a department of Toyota Industries, it created its first product Type A engine and its first passenger car (the Toyota AA) in 1936. The company was founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda as a spinoff from his father’s company Toyota Industries to create automobiles. Toyota owns and operates Toyota, Lexus, Scion brands and has a majority shareholding in Daihatsu Motors , and has minority shareholdings in Fuji Heavy Industries, Isuzu Motors, and the engine, motorcycle and marine craft manufacturer Yamaha Motors. The company includes 522 subsidiaries.

Toyota is headquartered in Toyota and Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture and in Tokyo. It also provides financial services through its division Toyota Financial Services and also creates robots besides automobiles. The company along with the original Toyota Industries form bulk of the Toyota Group, one of the largest conglomerates in the world.

Company overview

The Toyota Motor Company was awarded its first Japanese Quality Control Award at the start 1970s and began participating in a wide variety of Motorsports. Due to the 1973 oil crisis consumers in the lucrative U.S. market began turning to small cars with better fuel economy. American car manufacturers had considered small economy cars to be an “entry level” product, and their small vehicles were not made to a high level of quality in order to keep the price low. Japanese customers, however, had a long-standing tradition of demanding small fuel-efficient cars that were manufactured to a high level of quality. Because of this, companies like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan established a strong and growing presence in North America in the 1970s.

In 1982, the Toyota Motor Company and Toyota Motor Sales merged into one company, the Toyota Motor Corporation. Two years later, Toyota entered into a joint venture with GM called NUMMI, the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc, operating an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. The factory was an old General Motors plant that had been closed for several years. Toyota then started to establish new brands at the end of the 1980s, with the launch of their luxury division Lexus in 1989.

In the 1990s Toyota began to branch out from producing mostly compact cars by adding many larger and more luxurious vehicles to its lineup, including a full sized pickup, the T100 (and later the Toyota Tundra), several lines of SUVs, a sport version of the Camry, known as the Camry Solara, and the Scion brand, a group of several affordable, yet sporty, automobiles targeted specifically to young adults. Toyota also began production of the world’s best selling hybrid car, the Toyota Prius, in 1997.

With a major presence with Europe, due to the success of Toyota Team Europe, the corporation decided to set up TMME, Toyota Motor Europe Marketing & Engineering, to help market vehicles in the continent. Two years later, Toyota set up a base in the United Kingdom, TMUK, as the company’s cars had become very popular among British drivers. Bases in Indiana, Virginia and Tianjin were also set up. In 1999, the company decided to list itself on the New York and London Stock Exchange.

Subaru is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (FHI).

They are known for their use of boxer engines in their vehicles and standard AWD, as well as their turbocharged performance vehicles, such as the Subaru Impreza WRX.

Fuji Heavy Industries, and in turn, Subaru are currently affiliates of Toyota Motor Corporation, which owns 8.7% of FHI.

Subaru has built a reputation for producing high quality, reliable vehicles that did not sacrifice performance for everyday practicality.

The company is named after the star cluster Pleiades, whose Japanese name is “Subaru”, that roughly translated into English means, “to govern”, “unite,” or “gather together”. The company logo reflects the star design.

Modified versions of the Impreza WRX and WRX STi have been competing successfully in car rallies; drivers Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg have won World Rally Championship titles with the Subaru World Rally Team. The Subaru World Rally Championship cars are prepared and run by Prodrive, the highly successful British Motorsport team. Several endurance records were set in the early and mid-nineties by the Legacy.

FHI started out as “The Aircraft Research Laboratory” in 1917 headed by Chikuhei Nakajima. In 1931, the company was reorganized as “Nakajima Aircraft Company, Ltd”, the main airplane manufacturer for Japan in WWII.

At the end of the Second World War, Nakajima Aircraft was again reorganized, this time as Fuji Sangyo Co, Ltd. In 1946, Fuji Sangyo created its first Rabbit motor scooter with spare aircraft parts from the war. In 1950, Fuji Sangyo was divided into 12 smaller corporations according to the 1950 Corporate Credit Rearrangement Act, but between 1953-1955, four of these corporations and a newly formed corporation formed by an alliance of the four aforementioned companies were again merged together to form the Fuji Heavy Industries we know today.

Renault S.A. is a French vehicle manufacturer producing cars, vans, buses, tractors, and trucks. The company is well known for numerous revolutionary designs, security technologies, and motor racing.

Renault F1

Renault F1 is the Renault company’s Formula One racing team. Renault has competed in Formula One (originally via subsidiary Renault Sport), both as an engine supplier and as a constructor from the late 1970s to the present day, with several breaks. Renault introduced the turbo engine to Formula One when they debuted their first car, the Renault RS01 at Silverstone in 1977. Although the Renault team won races and competed for world titles, it was as a supplier of normally aspirated engines to the Benetton and Williams teams in the 1990s that Renault first tasted world championship success. Renault returned to the category as a constructor in 2001 by taking over the Benetton team, which was renamed Renault in 2002. Their first championship as a constructor was achieved in 2005; the same year that they won their first drivers’ championship with former test driver, Fernando Alonso, repeating that feat in 2006.

Renault F1 is coordinated from the team’s UK base at Enstone, Oxfordshire where the chassis are designed and built. Engines are manufactured at Renault’s facility at Viry-Châtillon outside Paris. As well as their championship wins in 2005 and 2006, Renault also contributed to 5 driver’s world championships (1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997) and 6 constructor’s world championships (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997) as engine supplier for Benetton and Williams.

Currently, Renault F1 is responsible for Renault’s involvement in Formula One; Renault’s other motorsport activities are conducted through Renault Sport.

Proton is the Malaysian national carmaker (Malay acronym for PeRusahaan OTOmobil Nasional, ‘National Automobile Enterprise’), which was established in 1983 under the direction of the former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamad. Proton Holdings Berhad, the holding company, is listed on the Bursa Malaysia.

Based on technology and parts from Mitsubishi Motors, production of the first model, the Proton Saga began in September 1985 at its first manufacturing plant in Shah Alam, Selangor. Initially the components of the car were entirely manufactured by Mitsubishi but slowly local parts were being used as technologies were transferred and skills were gained. The 100,000th Proton Saga was produced in January 1989.

Until the end of the 1990s, the car’s logo featured the crest from Malaysia’s coat of arms, featuring a crescent and a fourteen-pointed star. The new Proton logo features a stylized tiger head. In 1993, a model called Proton Wira was introduced based on the Mitsubishi Lancer/Colt. More than 220,000 units were sold between 1996 and 1998. Proton Perdana, based on the Mitsubishi Galant/Eterna, was first produced in 1995, intended for higher end market.

By 2002 Proton held a market share of over 60% in Malaysia, which was reduced to barely 30% by 2005 and is expected to reduce further in 2008 when AFTA mandates reduce import tariffs to a maximum of 5%.

Proton Waja (Proton Impian in UK) is the first car model designed internally by Proton. It was launched in early 2001

With the acquisition of Lotus technologies in 1996 from ACBN Holdings (a company owned by the same person who owned Bugatti), Proton has gained an additional source of engineering and automotive expertise. This led to the production of Proton Gen-2 which was code name Wira Replacement Model (WRM) before the launch. The Gen-2 is the first of cars to be manufactured and assembled at the new manufacturing plant in Tanjung Malim, Perak which is part of Proton City development project. The plant was opened in 2004. On June 8, 2005 Proton introduced the second model to be manufactured in Tanjung Malim, the 1,200 cc 5-door supermini, the Proton Savvy. Both the Gen-2 and Savvy, were models that MG Rover was looking to rebadge when the British firm entered into collaboration talks with Proton. However these joint-venture talks were unsuccessful and MG Rover subsequently collapsed.

In 2007, Proton launch its new sedan as replacement version for Wira Sedan but with new name, Persona. The new Proton Saga replacement model (codename Proton BLM) was launched on 18th January 2008. The new Saga is based on the Savvy platform, but using Campro 1.3L instead of Renault engine.

Adam Opel GmbH (commonly known as Opel) is an automobile manufacturer based in Rüsselsheim in the Groß-Gerau district in the Rhein-Main region of Germany.

The company was founded on 21 January 1863, and began making automobiles in 1899. Opel was acquired by General Motors Corporation in 1929 and continues as a subsidiary. Opel is part of GM Europe, and is GM’s largest European brand, and with Vauxhall Motors in the UK, forms GM’s core European business.

Early history
The company was founded on 21 January 1863 by Adam Opel, and at first made household goods, and was a major maker of sewing machines. The founder died in 1895, with his company the leader in European sewing machines sales and producing over 2,000 bicycles yearly. They made their first cars in 1898 having bought the rights to the Lutzmann and sold them as Opel-Lutzmann. However, two years later, following the dissolution of the partnership, Opel’s son signed a licensing agreement with Automobiles Darracq S.A. of France to manufacture vehicles under the brand name “Opel-Darracq”. The vehicles were Opel bodies mounted on a Darracq chassis, powered by a 2-cylinder engine.

In 1906 they started to make cars to their own design which they had first shown in 1902 at the Hamburg Motor Show and from 1907 stopped making the Opel-Darracqs.

In 1911 the factory was virtually destroyed by fire and a new one was built with more up to date machinery and the manufacture of sewing machines dropped. Production now consisted of bicycles, cars and motorcycles. By 1913 they were the largest car maker in Germany.

General Motors takeover
In March 1929 General Motors bought 80% of the company increasing this to 100% in 1931. The Opel family gained $33.3 million dollars from the transaction.

Events
1862 – Adam Opel begins building and selling sewing-machines.
1863 – Opel established as a full-fledged business; hires its first employees.
1886 – Bicycle production started; Opel eventually becomes Europe’s largest bicycle maker.
1899 – Opel introduces its first automobile (the “Patent Motor Car”) and its first utility vehicle.
1902 – Designs first shown at the Hamburg Motor Show.
1907 – Opel-Darracq shuts down.
1911 – Fire destroys much of the Rüsselsheim factory. Sewing-machine production ends with the one-millionth unit.
1913 – Opel is the largest automobile company in Germany.
1929 – General Motors buys 80% of the company in March. Fritz von Opel flies the first manned rocket (a rocketplane).
1937 – Bicycle production ends.
1931 – General Motors increases ownership to 100%.
1940 – Nazi regime seizes control of Opel factories, ends all civilian production.
1942 – General Motors writes off Opel as a complete loss.
1944 – Rüsselsheim and Brandenburg plants badly damaged by Allied bombing.
1945 – Soviets seize Kadett production assets as war reparations.
1946 – First post-war ‘Blitz’ truck built.
1947 – Passenger car production resumes with the Olympia model.
1948 – General Motors reasserts control over surviving Opel assets.
1968 – Opel GT introduced.
1971 – Opel launched in Asia.
2005 – Started cooperation with Saturn Corporation.
2006 – Opel Japan shuts down in December.

The Mitsubishi Group Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese conglomerate consisting of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy.The Mitsubishi group of companies form a loose entity, the Mitsubishi Keiretsu, which is often referenced in US and Japanese media and official reports; in general these companies all descend from the zaibatsu of the same name. A keiretsu is a common feature of Japanese corporate governance and refers to a collaborative group of integrated companies with extensive share crossholdings, personnel swaps and strategic co-operation. The top 25 companies are also members of the Mitsubishi Kin’yōkai, or “Friday Club”, and meet monthly. The Mitsubishi.Com Committee is charged with maintaining the overall integrity of the brand as well as maintaining the portal web site.

World War II

The Mitsubishi Zero was a primary Japanese naval fighter in World War II. It was used by Imperial Japanese Navy pilots in the attack on Pearl Harbor and in kamikaze attacks until the end of the war. Allied pilots were astounded by its maneuverability, and it was very successful in combat until the Allies devised tactics to utilize their advantage in firepower and diving speed. Mitsubishi also built the “Raiden”, a land-based interceptor.

As well as building prominent fighters, Mitsubishi also built many of Japan’s most famous bombers of the war, such as the G3M, the G4M, the Ki-21, and the Ki-67. During the 1930s, Mitsubishi had also built the single-engined Ki-35.

During the Second World War, Mitsubishi manufactured aircraft, including the famous Zero that was used in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and many other occasions. Also, like many other large Japanese corporations at that time, it made use of slave labor from U.S. Allied POWs and the Japanese captured territories, like Korea and China. With poor working conditions, many people died during this period. Approximately twenty thousand Korean slave laborers died in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States.

In a statement, the Mitsubishi Corporation says that forced labor is inconsistent with the company’s values, and that the various lawsuits targeting Mitsubishi are misdirected. Instead, a spokesman says the Mitsubishi of World War II is not the same Mitsubishi of today. The conglomerate also rejected a Chinese slave labor lawsuit demand by saying it bore no responsibility since it was national policy to employ Chinese laborers.”

New era
Mitsubishi participated in Japan’s unprecedented economic growth of the 1950s and 1960s. For example, as Japan modernized its energy and materials industries, the Mitsubishi companies created Mitsubishi Petrochemical, Mitsubishi Atomic Power Industries, Mitsubishi Liquefied Petroleum Gas, and Mitsubishi Petroleum Development.

The traditional Mitsubishi emphasis on technological development was in new ventures in such fields as space development, aviation, ocean development, data communications, computers, and semiconductors. Mitsubishi companies also were active in consumer goods and services.

In 1970, Mitsubishi companies established the Mitsubishi Foundation to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the founding of the first Mitsubishi company. The companies also individually maintain charitable foundations. Mitsubishi pavilions have been highlights of expositions in Japan since the historic EXPO’70 in Osaka in 1970.

As of 2007, Mitsubishi Corporation, a member of the Mitsubishi Group, is Japan’s largest general trading company (sogo shosha) with over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide. Together with its over 500 group companies, Mitsubishi employs a multinational workforce of approximately 54,000 people. Mitsubishi has long been engaged in business with customers around the world in many industries, including energy, metals, machinery, chemicals, food and general merchandise.

Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at Hethel, Norfolk, England. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and high handling characteristics.

The company was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by engineer Colin Chapman, a graduate of University College, London, in 1952. The first factory was in old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey. Team Lotus was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994.The company moved to a purpose built factory at Cheshunt in 1959 and since 1966 the company has occupied a modern factory and road test facility at Hethel, near Wymondham. This site is the former RAF Hethel base and the test track uses sections of the old runway.

Chapman died of a heart attack in 1982, at the age of 54, having begun life an inn-keeper’s son and ended a multi-millionaire industrialist in post-war Britain. The carmaker built tens of thousands of successful racing and road cars and won the Formula One World Championship seven times. At the time of his death he was linked with the DeLorean scandal over the use of government subsidies for the production of the De Lorean DMC-12 for which Lotus had designed the chassis.
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Kia Motors, a subsidiary of Hyundai Kia Automotive Group, is South Korea’s 2nd largest automobile manufacturer with headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. Its CEO is Chung Eui-sun. The American arm is Kia Motors America. On October 20, 2006, Kia Motors America formally hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for its first US assembly plant in West Point, Georgia, at an initial cost of over $1 billion. Since 2005, Kia has started to focus on the European market and is currently the UK’s fastest growing car company and had various other successes in the European market.

According to Kia Motors, the name “Kia” derives from the sino-korean word ki meaning arise or come up out of or rising up and the sino-korean word a which stands for Asia. So Kia is roughly translated as arise or come up out of Asia or Rising out of Asia.

Kia Motors Europe
Kia Motors Europe (KME) is the European sales and marketing division of Kia Motors Corporation (KMC). In 2007 KME moved from its previous location at Hauptstrasse 185, Eschborn, Frankfurt to a new purpose built facility adjacent to the Messe in Frankfurt city centre.
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