Porsche

Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE ([ˈpɔrʃə][3]), a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury high performance automobiles, which is majority-owned by the Piëch and Porsche families. Porsche SE is headquartered in Zuffenhausen, a city district of Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg.

Porsche SE is a holding company which has two main subsidiaries - Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (which stands for Doktor Ingenieur honoris causa Ferdinand Porsche Aktiengesellschaft), often shortened to Porsche AG, and Volkswagen AG. Porsche AG is the subsidiary of Porsche SE which is responsible for the actual production and manufacture of the Porsche automobile line, and Volkswagen AG is the parent company of the Volkswagen Group, which includes (but is not limited to) the automotive marques Audi, Bentley Motors and Bugatti Automobiles.

The company was founded as Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche,[4] an Austro-Hungarian engineer born in Maffersdorf, Austria-Hungary (today Vratislavice nad Nisou, Czech Republic). Ferdinand Porsche is also known for designing the first Volkswagen, but Béla Barényi is credited with having conceived the basic design five years earlier.[5] The company currently produces 911 (997), Boxster and Cayman sports cars and Cayenne sport utility vehicles. The latest model line, the four-door Panamera saloon (sedan), was launched on Monday, 20 April 2009.

In August 2009, Porsche SE and Volkswagen AG reached an agreement that the two companies would merge in 2011, to form an "Integrated Automotive Group".[1][2]