Volkswagen Passenger Cars is the group's core volume brand, built around the Golf family since 1974. Audi, based in Ingolstadt, occupies the premium tier and contributes much of the group's longitudinal-engine and quattro all-wheel-drive engineering. Both brands draw on the same underlying platforms and powertrain families despite their different market positions.
SEAT, Spanish and based in Martorell, joined the group in 1986; its sportier derivative CUPRA became a separate marque in 2018. Škoda, Czech and based in Mladá Boleslav, came under group control between 1991 and 2000 and grew from a regional maker into one of the group's largest brands by volume. Across all four, the same MQB toolkit means a buyer is often choosing styling, trim and price rather than fundamentally different engineering.