All Press Releases

The Volkswagen Group steps up its activities in North America in a bid to take a strong position in this important growth market for battery electric vehicles. The Group and its battery company PowerCo have selected St. Thomas in Ontario, Canada to establish Volkswagen’s first overseas gigafactory for cell manufacturing, which will produce sustainable unified cells, start of production is planned for 2027. The decision to expand the PowerCo cell production ramp-up from Europe to Canada is further proof of the ambitious growth strategy of the Group in North America.

Volkswagen Group delivered a robust performance in 2022 with profitability improving despite ongoing supply disruptions and headwinds from higher raw material and energy costs. This was supported by continued pricing discipline, cost progress, and driven by a stronger mix which helped to increase operating profit before special items by EUR 2.5 billion to EUR 22.5 billion. The Group made significant progress in the execution of its strategy in 2022 in particular with the successful Porsche AG IPO, the launch of the Group’s battery company PowerCo with the ground-breaking of the first cell gigafactory in Salzgitter, the start of production of the all-electric ID.4 in the USA as well as the partnership with Horizon Robotics to further strengthening competitiveness in China.

Volkswagen AG is filling two key positions in communications. Pietro Zollino is moving from TRATON GROUP to Volkswagen AG and will take over as Head of Corporate Communications and Deputy Head of Global Group Communications from Nicole Mommsen effective April 1. The corporate communications role comprises media relations, strategy and international communications as well as sustainability and integrity communications. In his new role Pietro Zollino will report to Dr. Sebastian Rudolph, Head of Global Group Communications. Nicole Mommsen has been appointed Head of Global Communications and Sustainability Group Technology at Volkswagen. The role has been newly created and includes communications across Group Technology’s four main pillars: Group Components, PowerCo SE, Volkswagen Group Charging & Energy and Volkswagen’s third-party platform business. It also spans the sustainability activities of the division. As a new member of the Group Technology management team, Nicole Mommsen will report to Thomas Schmall-von Westerholt, Group Board Member for Technology and Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Group Components.

Volkswagen Group is pleased to announce a new collaboration with the exhibition project “GEDANKEN SPIELEN VERSTECKEN” developed by the art and education specialists at EPHRA in Berlin. The partnership comprises four Volkswagen Group Art4All Sundays, offering free access and several extra experiences for children, youngsters and adults. The exhibition features 22 internationally acclaimed artists including Olafur Eliasson, Karin Sander and Tomás Saraceno.

At Tech Day 2023, Volkswagen Group Technology provided an outlook of upcoming electric car innovations in the areas of batteries, charging and electronic components. The focus was on the electric drive system of the future. For this purpose, Volkswagen is taking care of all the central components itself and, in addition to batteries and electric motors, is now developing pulse inverters and thermal management systems internally. The Volkswagen drive system coming from one source offers significant efficiency and cost advantages: Up to 20 percent more efficiency is possible through the optimal combination of individual components alone.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has attended his first Volkswagen works meeting. At the parent plant in Wolfsburg, he spent several hours in intensive discussions with the workforce, the Works Council and members of the Board of Management. In and around hall 11 more than 10,000 employees welcomed the high-ranking politician in the heart of the factory on Thursday. The visit included a 45-minute question and answer session between Volkswagen staff and Germany’s head of government at which the Chancellor answered employees’ questions directly. Before the works meeting got underway, Scholz was taken on a tour of the Golf production. This year, the all-electric ID.3 will be added to the portfolio of vehicles produced at corporate headquarters. The German Chancellor also used his visit as an opportunity to gain an insight into Volkswagen’s forward-looking vocational training. The last time Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg plant welcomed such a high-ranking politician was around 15 years ago in 2008, when Scholz’s predecessor Angela Merkel stood in front of the workforce.

The self-employed attorney Günther Horvath is to join the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG and take over the vacant seat as a shareholder representative. The Nomination Committee of the Group’s Supervisory Board has adopted a corresponding resolution. Horvath is to succeed Louise Kiesling, who passed away in December 2022.

Volkswagen is the main partner of the curatorial team for the German Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2023 in Venice. The German Pavilion is being commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building. Volkswagen supports the concept for the German Pavilion, which focuses on the essential topic of sustainability, including the aspects of care, repair and maintenance.