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What is the relationship of Porsche and VW?
Information on 1. reasons of Porsche growth recently 2. market structure of Porsche 3. degree of unionization 4. cost structure (fixed cost & economies of scale) would help ALOT!

Thanks in advance.

''Ferdinand Porsche'' started the company VW & designed the original Beetle.
He then started another car company known as Porsche & designed the Porsche 356, which was a rear engined car just like the original Beetle.

Every Porsche ever made was a sportscar with a Boxer engine until 2004 when they made the SUV.

1. Porsche has been growing because people were making more money so they can afford them. Porsche is r as fast as Ferrari is & Lamborghini's, but more practical, cheaper, more reliable, & more luxurious. When Porsche made the SUV, the Cayenne, they became very sucessful. The Cayenne is now the best selling SUV in the world & Porsche is best selling car.
Porsche is r also very fuel efficient. The Porsche Boxster S with 295HP gets better gas mileage than slower cars with less or more power like the Nissan 350z & Mazda RX-8 & Ford Mustang V6 & GT.

Porsche & VW always worked together since they came from the same founder.
Now Porsche owns more than 40% of VW & they have the controling stock.
And VW owns Bently, Skoda, Seat, & Audi, who owns Lamborghini.

VW is Europe is best selling cars. And now that Porsche is buying them, they will soon become the largest car company in the world & beat GM & Toyota.

Porsche is the only company allowed to buy VW by law.

Porsche has been so successful, because they have stuck to Ferdinand Porsche is ideals. The Cayenne is NOT the best selling SUV in the world, that goes to the Ford Explorer. However, recent growth has been due to sales of the Boxster & Cayenne models, which provided for funding for additional products such as the Cayman & the 911. Naturally many who bought a Cayenne wondered about their cars too.

There is no law stating that only Porsche can by VW. If that were the case, then the remaining Automaker of Auto Union (Audi) , could not have taken control of VW after WWII. As of lately, Porsche bought about 33% of VW, & r wanting about 75% of it.

Porsche has been very successful in a variety of endeavors over the years. but they have also been on the verge of going under less than 10 years ago, so u have to take a somewhat large view as to what has them in their current strong position. As a generalization, Porsche has done well based on engineering, & making sure they understand the problem before they start a solution. This is the basic formula that led to their success in providing engineering solutions to other automakers (which allowed them to keep a much larger engineering staff that would otherwise be justified by a car maker of their size); it was the basic that led to their records in motorsports; it was the same ideas that led to their plans & development of their various vehicles. & ultimately, it was the basis for their re-evaluating how they did business & their current success as a company (currently doing great in racing, outstanding sales in all product segments, soaring stock value, & well received products).

Porsche & VW. Dr. Porsche did design work for many German companies before WWI l (Auto Union, Mercedes Benz), & ultimately was the chosen design for ''The People is Car'' (literally, Volkswagon), which was the original Beetle. After the war, his son started the car company we now know; due to parts shortages following WWII, the first Porsche cars that went to production were based off of many Beetle parts as these were available when new parts were difficult to produce.

The next common tie between the two companies would come years later, as Porsche started selling more & more cars in the United States. Lacking a sales channel, & too small on their own, Porsches began selling through VW is US channels (and years later would continue to share with the VW created Audi channel, only separating much much later).

The next common bonds comes with shared projects: The Porsche 914, which was marketed & sold as the VW-Porsche 914 in most of the world; the Porsche 924 which was originally designed by Porsche as a car for Audi; & then more recently, the Cayenne/Toureg joint project.

The next VW-Porsche bond is related to the family. While a number of members of the Porsche family have served on the VW Board, Ferdinand Piech (son of Dr. Porsche is daughter Louise) left his post of heading up Porsche motorsports in the early 1970s to take over Audi. A post that would eventually lead to his being the chairman for VW (a role that he would occupy as they rose to their current size & ownership of other companies).

And lastly. Porsche currently own 30.9% of VW stock, which makes them the largest single shareholder. German law does not prevent others from making such a purchase, but it does prevent foreign interests from having a majority share under some circumstances. Porsche is purchase was somewhat defensive in blocking possible take over from outside of Germany. Also by German law, upon passing 30% ownership, Porsche was required to make a bid for all of the company, which they did (though did so at a price that little if any stock was sold for their offer, which was well under market value).

Porsche is recent growth is based largely on strong economy in many regions of the world over the last 10 years, & lessons learned from mistakes the company made in the late 1980s & early 1990s, when the company was nearly purchased by BMW (a likely fate if the Boxster had not been a financial success). Since gaining a solid recovery, they have continued to be careful about new investments, & aimed at developing at least some products (ie, the Cayenne), which would provide a better continuing income base during an economic downturn (sportcars do not sell well under those situations, but family vehicles - even expensive ones - hold sales numbers better).

About 1/4 of the German workforce is unionized, & Porsche is listed as a union shop for many trades. Given current globalization & outsourcing, it is unlikely that even all of their work in Germany is unionized, but likely that a large part of it is.

Porsche is currently sells at premium pricing, & enjoys higher margins than many companies. They r also expert at privateer sales in motorsports & have kept this as a profitable business. motorsports remains key to much of their development & allows them to leverage the work of outside partners along with their own race engineering into future production cars (this is also aided by their continuing engineering consulting business to other companies. though restructuring in the late 90s has diminished the amount of this kind of work that can be done). Since the late 90s, Porsche has worked to cut costs by using more shared parts across product lines, & made other cuts to all but their top line cars (ie, the move from true dry sump engines through most of the line).

Porsche has been so successful because they have built high quality products in limited numbers & they have always focused on racing, & succeeded therein.

The racing heritage of Porsche is really what makes the brand, their technology & automobiles so dependable.

That is the product. As far as the ''successful'' component of the business, that might be a question of ''why is Porsche so profitable?'' Porsche is the most profitable brand of automobile in the world. Having one consistent ''anchor'' model line that sells well over many years & whos platform can be maintained & improved upon over & over is why they r so profitible. The 911 is the car that really paved this pathway to profitability.

In terms of VW ownership & the relationship of Porsche to VW - u might reference this map:

http://autoblog.com/photos/automotive-family-tree-2008/725147/

Great Question & best of luck on ur quest for the perfect answer. l hope this is helpful!

Have you seen a porsche..if yes you know why