Porsche History

Ferdinand Porsche had a talent with electricity. When Ferdinand was only a teenager, his father bought him a battery so he could conduct experiments. Ferdinand had soon learned enough about electricity to build and install an entire electrical system that includes switches and wires and a generator, in their home.

In order to give his son an education, Ferdinand was sent to work with a company that produced electrical equipment and machines. He also enrolled in a technical university. By age 22, Ferdinand had become manager of the test department. Soon after, the Jacob Lohner & Company carriage manufacturers hired Porsche to work in their new car manufacturing division. Porsche loved to build a variety of prototypes, which was costly for Lohner, but Porsche proved himself in the first year with a winning design. Their first electric car was introduced in 1900 at the World Expo in Paris.

Porsche had a desire to make race cars and he even approached the Daimler auto factory in Austria about it. They disagreed with his vision, so he went to work for the German Daimler plant where he created a supercharged Mercedes. Porsche sent his car to the Targa Florio race in Sicily in 1924, and surprised everyone when it beat out the Italian Alfa Romeo, which had been winning the race for years.

Porsche founded the Porsche company in the early 30s and is responsible for the Volkswagen's distinctive body shape and rear engine. After creating a prototype, Porsche was asked by Adolf Hitler to design a car that could be purchased for less than 1000 marks. Unknown to Porsche, his Volkswagen design would become the bestselling car in the world.

The Porsche company has remained close to the Volkswagen group and collaborated many times throughout the years. Porsche began buying stock in the Volkswagen group in 2005, and effectively tried to prevent other companies from taking over the Volkswagen group since then. While Volkswagen is considered a publicly traded company, its structure is complicated, as Porsche remains in the lead with amounts of shares held.

Porsche was captured in 1945 (during World War II) and sent to a castle in Hessen for interrogation by the United States Army. After his release, the French arrested him and was held in a villa belonging to the French automaker, Renault. After receiving little to no assistance from Porsche, they released him in 1947. In the same year, Porsche and his son began work on the first car that would be called 'Porsche'.

In Stuttgart, Germany, Porsche and his son Ferry started up their auto-making venture yet again. The American embargo on his plant meant it could not be used as collateral, and therefore no credit lines could be established. In an inventive move, Ferry sold the cars prepaid to the dealers, and the business was in business again.

In the fall of 1950, Ferdinand Porsche suffered a stroke and died in January 1951. Although the world lost an outstanding design genius, his son Ferry carried on the family tradition of innovation, engineering and class. The Porsche name is synonymous with quality and has won the J.D. Power and Associates award for the highest-ranked nameplate in 2006, 2009 and 2010.