The Volkswagen Passat is a series of large family cars manufactured and marketed by the German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen since 1973, and now in its eighth generation. It has been marketed variously as the Dasher, Santana, Quantum, Magotan, Corsar and Carat. The successive generations of the Passat carry the Volkswagen internal designations B1, B2, etc.
In 2008, Volkswagen launched Passat CC, a "four-door coupé" variant of the Passat.
In January 2011, Volkswagen announced that it would release another Passat model, internally designated Volkswagen New Midsize Sedan or NMS, that would be manufactured at the Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant. SAIC-Volkswagen also manufactures the Passat NMS in its Nanjing factory. The Passat NMS is sold in the North American, South Korean, Chinese, and Middle Eastern markets. A new Passat model entered production in Europe in 2014, based on the MQB platform.
In 2019, the Passat NMS program was split into two as the North American one continued being produced on an older platform while the Chinese Passat moved on to the MQB platform, meaning that Volkswagen currently markets three models of the Passat globally.