5 Largest Family-Owned Businesses In the World

2. Volkswagen AG

Total revenue in 2019 (in billions of dollars): 275.2

T0tal number of employees in 2019: 671,205

Volkswagen is a German car manufacturer, and for the last four years at least, has been the largest car manufacturer in the entire world, overtaking Toyota in 2016 and holding on to its lead ever since. It has had the biggest market share in Europe for at least twenty years, as it produces both luxury and normal passenger cars. Volkswagen owns some of the biggest car brands in the world including Audi, Bentley, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Skoda and SEAT in addition to of course, Volkswagen itself.

Volkswagen engaged in one of the biggest scandals of the 21st century, when it designed its cars in a way to cheat the emissions tests, showing lower emissions ever as the actual emissions were over 35 to 40 times that of the regulatory limit. After its discovery, Volkswagen has to call back a potential 482,000 vehicles while facing around $18 billion in fines as well. To resolve their scandal, including restitution, penalties and vehicle callbacks, the whole thing is set to cost the company around $30 billion.

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