All Press Releases

The KW Institute for Contemporary Art looks back on one of the most successful exhibitions of their history which spans nearly 35 years. The “Poetics of Encryption“ show completed a two-year long project which had been supported by the Volkswagen Group in the frame of its cultural engagement.

On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, which the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is going to celebrate on the upcoming weekend, Volkswagen sends its heartfelt congratulations. When the museum was established shortly after Germany’s reunification, the Volkswagen Group had been part of the major founding partners.

Volkswagen launches the next phase of its transformation in China. At its China Capital Markets Day in Beijing, Volkswagen Group presented its strategy update for the Chinese market. The focus is on its target to strengthen tech capabilities and reduce costs in the strongly growing market. The Group plans to achieve cost parity with local competition in the compact car segment by 2026 and gain further momentum through a re-aligned strategy and an efficiency program that was launched already. In addition, the company underlined its commitment to its “in China, for China” strategy: It presented measures to cater even better to the needs of Chinese customers, accelerate model developments and time-to-market as well as significantly reduce costs. In addition, the aim is to better harness the innovative power of the market and increase local value creation through more in-house development capabilities and strong local partnerships. As a result, the Group aims to strengthen its position as the #1 international OEM in the Chinese market and has set ambitious targets until 2030: Approximately 4 million vehicles sold and growth in proportionate operating result to around EUR 3.0 billion, including the fully consolidated Anhui joint venture.

Volkswagen Group's subsidiary Elli, airborne wind turbine manufacturer EnerKíte, and the Technical University of Braunschweig present groundbreaking research at the Hannover Messe, which could enable energy-autonomous charging for electric vehicles in the future. High-tech kites "harvest" strong and steady high-altitude winds, converting them into electricity. The energy is stored in Elli's Flexpole fast-charger and can be used to charge EVs. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and coordinated at the Open Hybrid LabFactory Campus in Wolfsburg.

The Volkswagen Group increased its deliveries in the first quarter of 2024 by 3 percent to 2.10 million vehicles. The main growth drivers were China (+8 percent), South America (+14 percent) and North America (+5 percent). Vehicles with combustion engines increased by 4 percent to 1.97 million units, overcompensating the slight decline of 3 percent to 136,400 all-electric vehicles (BEV). In this segment, strong growth in China (+91 percent) did not fully offset the decline in Europe (-24 percent). However, incoming orders for BEVs in Western Europe developed positively from January to March. More than twice as many all-electric models were ordered as in the same period last year (+154 percent), so that the BEV order bank currently stands at around 160,000 vehicles.

The electrification of fleets is a key step in the mobility transition, and with it comes the demand for innovative B2B charging solutions that ensure smooth operation of their business activities. With Charging Site Management, Volkswagen Group subsidiary Elli is launching a completely new B2B product that offers AC and DC charging hardware (including Elli Flexpole, Elli Charger and additional charging hardware from selected partners), integrated software solutions (including Elli Site Management Console and Elli Fleet Management Console), as well as extensive consulting functions. The software solutions focus on a simple plug and play concept and offer all features for the operation of charging infrastructures, including load management. Users have the option of making important changes for their operations at any time via dashboards (e.g. usage periods, average capacity utilization).

The Volkswagen Group is welcoming further strategic collaboration and significantly accelerating its development efforts in the field of automated and autonomous driving. Now, Volkswagen is intensifying its partnership with Mobileye in the domain of automated driving. Together, the two companies will bring new automated driving functions to series production. Mobileye is to provide technologies for partially and highly automated driving based on its Mobileye SuperVision and Mobileye Chauffeur platforms. In future, the Volkswagen Group’s Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche brands will use these technologies to rapidly introduce new premium-oriented driving functions to their model portfolios across powertrain types. These include advanced assistance systems for highway and urban driving, such as automated overtaking on multilane highways in permitted areas and conditions, as well as automatic stopping at red lights and stop signs, and support in intersections and roundabouts. In addition, Mobileye is set to supply further technology components for automated driving to Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. In the long term, the Volkswagen Group aims to rely on its own complete in-house system: Partnerships with Bosch and Qualcomm, as well as with Horizon Robotics in China, will be continued with a focus. All driver assistance systems are to be based on the software architectures developed by Volkswagen’s Cariad company.

Volkswagen Group achieved robust financial results in a challenging environment in 2023. Thanks to progress in electrification and a flexible product strategy, the Group successfully is able to meet customers’ needs worldwide. At the same time, 2023 was a year of restructuring for Volkswagen Group. In many areas of the TOP-10 program, the Group has made progress faster than originally planned. With more than 30 new products, 2024 will be the year of world premieres, with highlights including the high-performance all-electric vehicles based on the new PPE premium platform. Volkswagen Group is therefore confident about the current year and an accelerated ramp-up from 2025 onwards. The overarching Group goal remains sustainable, value-creating growth.