ID. Polo

The Volkswagen project emerged from a Nazi-era initiative to produce an affordable vehicle for every German family, designed by Ferdinand Porsche. The Beetle production began after WWII under British occupation, and the company grew into a global powerhouse. The Golf (Rabbit in the US) replaced the Beetle in 1974 and became one of the most popular cars of all time. The Golf GTI (1976) invented the hot hatch segment. VW expanded aggressively through acquisitions of Audi, SEAT, Škoda, Bentley, Lamborghini, Bugatti, and Porsche from the 1960s through 2012. The 2015 Dieselgate emissions scandal, in which VW admitted fitting defeat device software to millions of diesel cars, was the largest scandal in automotive history and cost the company over $30 billion in fines and settlements. VW has since committed massively to electrification with the ID range.