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The Brand Group Core delivered robust financial results in 2023. Higher volume and price effects, improved availability of parts and lower fixed costs had a positive effect, while higher product costs and the deconsolidation of Volkswagen Group Rus had a negative impact on the result. The global market and competitive environment remains challenging. The Brand Group Core is working on further stabilizing its performance with a view to improving its resilience against external factors, in particular given the slower development of the e-mobility market in Europe.

Volkswagen Group is consistently driving its e-offensive in China for China. Volkswagen and XPENG have entered into a Master Agreement on platform and software collaboration, marking a significant milestone in their strategic partnership. In December 2023, Volkswagen completed the acquisition of shares amounting to around 4.99 per cent of the total issued and outstanding share capital of XPENG, at that time following the announcement of the partnership in July. The Master Agreement centres on the initial joint development of two mid-size Volkswagen brand vehicles, which will launch first with a SUV. This will enable the VW brand to expand its existing portfolio quickly, to reach new target customer groups in the fast-growing EV market in China. The two jointly developed e-models will be equipped with state-of-the-art software and hardware, offering Chinese customers an intuitive, connected digital experience and advanced automated driving functions. All parties are contributing their respective core competences to the joint development work.

The Golf is celebrating its 50th birthday this year – and Volkswagen is launching an enhanced version of its bestseller to mark the anniversary. Customers will be able to order the new model in just a few weeks. The new Golf impresses with a next-generation infotainment system, a more intuitive operating concept, a sharper front and rear end design as well as efficient drive systems. These include plug-in hybrid drives with an increased all-electric range of about 100 kilometres. In addition, an illuminated Volkswagen logo adorns the front for the first time on a Golf.

At CES 2024, the world's leading electronics trade fair held from 9 to 12 January, Volkswagen will present the first vehicles in which the artificial-intelligence-based chatbot ChatGPT is integrated into its IDA voice assistant. In future, customers will have seamless access to the constantly growing artificial intelligence database in all Volkswagen models equipped with the IDA voice assistantand have researched content read out to them while driving. Cerence Chat Pro from technology partner Cerence Inc. is the foundation of the new function, which offers a uniquely intelligent, automotive-grade ChatGPT integration. Volkswagen will be the first volume manufacturer to offer Chat GPT as a standard feature from the second quarter of 2024 in many production vehicles.

The Volkswagen brand has achieved an important milestone in the “Accelerate Forward/ Road to 6.5” global performance program, with management and employee representatives reaching agreement on key points to streamline the company, following intensive negotiations. The objective of the three-year program is to secure the Volkswagen Group’s core brand competitiveness, ensure it is future-proof and sustainable in the long term. The Volkswagen brand aims to make a positive earnings contribution totaling ten billion euros by 2026, also to offset negative effects such as inflation and higher raw material costs. The operating return on sales is expected to improve sustainably to 6.5 percent in 2026. The Volkswagen brand projects that the program will deliver positive earnings contributions of up to four billion euros as early as 2024. To achieve this, the Company concentrates on performance-enhancing and cost-saving measures in the program’s three focus areas: optimizing material and product costs, reducing fixed and manufacturing costs and increasing revenues. The Company and the employee representatives have also reached agreement on staff reduction measures to cut personnel and labor costs. These measures will apply throughout Volkswagen AG. As such, from January 2024 the Company will extend its partial retirement schemes to all employees born in 1967 (and for severely handicapped employees born in 1968), to reduce administrative staff costs in particular. The current hiring freeze and access freeze to the Tarif Plus salary group will continue until further notice.

From now on, many models in the ID. Family now offer bidirectional charging with the "Vehicle to Home" function. With a home power station and the integrated Home Energy Management System (HEMS) from Volkswagen partner HagerEnergy GmbH, customers can cover as much of their household consumption as possible with their photovoltaic system. Both companies have launched a pilot project in Sweden in which an entire housing estate is being supplied with vehicles and the corresponding charging infrastructure.

Volkswagen Financial Services have continued the current fiscal year with a solid third quarter. For example, the new contract acquisi-tions worldwide increased by 10.8 percent during the months from January to Sep-tember 2023. The portfolio of current contracts remained stable at just over 22 million. "We continue to see the normalization of the financial services business in terms of earnings that has been apparent since the beginning of the year and feel confirmed in our assessment for 2023," said Dr. Christian Dahlheim, Chairman of the Management Board of Volkswagen Financial Services AG. He added: "We are pleased with the de-velopment of new contracts, which exceeded six million units in the first nine months of the fiscal year. This reflects the improved vehicle availability." Frank Fiedler, CFO of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, noted: "All our forecasts regarding business per-formance are being confirmed. We are therefore sticking to our earnings target, de-spite the numerous global political and macroeconomic uncertainties."