All Press Releases

Astypalea is on course to become a smart, sustainable island. The first electric vehicles, including the first fully electric police car in Greece, were taken into service today in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess and Deputy Foreign Minister Kostas Fragogiannis. The first public and private charging points were also inaugurated. The event marked the launch of the transition to full electrification on Astypalea. In the coming years, the island wants to switch to smart sustainable mobility and completely modernizing its energy system. Volkswagen and the Greek government signed a memorandum of understanding to this effect last November.

The Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG has elected Daniela Cavallo to serve on its Executive Committee, following her appointment as a member of the Supervisory Board by the competent local court effective May 11, 2021.

Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH, an independent company to date, will be fully integrated in Volkswagen AG by 2027. The company has reached an agreement to that effect with the trade union IG Metall. The integration will help optimise corporate structures and speed up decision-making processes at the three sites of Chemnitz, Dresden and Zwickau. The company is thus taking a further step in the transformation process of the Group. The around 10,000 employees will be gradually transitioned to Volkswagen AG’s company collective agreement. They were previously covered by the regional collective agreement applying in the metal and electrical industry.

Non-profit coding school “42 Wolfsburg” will start operations on May 11 with 170 students from over 30 countries. As early as next year, up to 600 students will be trained to be software developers at the Markthalle in Wolfsburg. “42 Wolfsburg” is the latest offshoot of the talent factory “42” founded in Paris in 2013. The innovative educational model of the worldwide “42” network relies on new, creative forms of IT training without admission restrictions, professors or lectures. Volkswagen is supporting “42 Wolfsburg” with EUR 3.7 million in the first year and a further two million euros annually in the following years. The goal is to “break new ground in IT education so that graduates have all the tools they need to creatively shape the future of zero-emission, digital mobility,” said Volkswagen Board Member for Human Resources Gunnar Kilian and Ralph Linde, Head of Volkswagen Group Academy & President of 42 Wolfsburg e.V., in Wolfsburg on Monday. Other partners of “42 Wolfsburg”, in addition to SMEs and civil society organizations such as the ReDi School for refugees, include Porsche, Microsoft, Google and Red Hat.

The positive business development of the Volkswagen Group in the second half of 2020 continued in the first quarter of this year. This resulted in strong financial performance with significant improvements over the weaker prior-year period that was impacted by the pandemic. Some key figures even came in above pre-crisis levels from the first quarter of 2019. Successful management of the Covid-19 pandemic and semiconductor shortages, along with recovery in the markets, were key to this positive development. As a result, sales revenue increased by 13.3 percent to a high level of EUR 62.4 billion. Operating profit soared compared to the prior-year level to 4.8 (0.9) billion. The higher earnings were mainly due to increased unit sales, improvements in the product mix, positive effects from the valuation of raw material hedges and initial success from the fixed cost reduction program. One-off restructuring expenses of EUR 0.4 billion had a negative impact. The Automotive Division underscored the robustness of its business model with a high adjusted net cash flow of EUR 5.5 (–1.5) billion. The Division’s net liquidity rose to a very solid level of EUR 29.6 billion. The Volkswagen Group raised the outlook for its operating margin for full year 2021 to 5.5 to 7.0 percent. It was previously 5.0 to 6.5 percent.

At their first joint meeting this year, Volkswagen Group Board of Management and the independent Volkswagen Sustainability Council discussed the Group’s decarbonization plan and activities. The Sustainability Council called in particular for an even stronger discussion on Volkswagen Group’s corporate purpose to provide CO₂ neutral mobility for all, together with a clearly defined end date for internal combustion engines. During the discussion, both sides agreed on a more thorough ESG (Environmental Social Governance) reporting system, and to commission an additional study on socially responsible workforce transition. The firm commitment of Volkswagen to the EU Green Deal also includes the demand for more green energy, faster exit from fossil energy production, rapid expansion of charging infrastructure, and new rules for state aid to strengthen the transformation and decarbonization of industry and production sites. The nine-member Sustainability Council has been advising Volkswagen on strategic issues relating to sustainability and social responsibility since 2016.

Volkswagen Group China has begun construction of an all-new MEB plant at Volkswagen Anhui recently. As the third of the Group’s pure-electric vehicle manufacturing facilities in China, following completion of the Anting (SAIC VW) and Foshan (FAW-VW) plants, the Volkswagen Anhui plant will be powered by green energy from day one. Due for completion mid-2022, the plant is set for start of production in the second half of 2023. The plant is another cornerstone of Volkswagen’s global e-mobility push. By 2025, Volkswagen Group China plans to deliver up to 1.5 million new energy vehicles (NEVs) per year.

The Volkswagen Group will be a founding member of the Catena-X Automotive Network. The union, which currently consists of 25 partners from the fields of business and science, is pursuing the goal of creating uniform standards for the flow of data and information in the automotive value chain. This should serve as the basis for a digital ecosystem in which automobile manufacturers and suppliers, dealer associations as well as technology suppliers can take part. Volkswagen expects the cross-company, secure and antitrust law compliant data exchange to result in new opportunities for increased efficiency and transparency for production and supply chains.

From Chattanooga to Beijing, from Audi to Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles: with Earth Day on 22 April just around the corner, the twelve brands of the Volkswagen Group and their 660,000 employees are preparing to make a strong statement. At the #Project1Hour, they will interrupt their work for one hour to learn together about climate protection and develop concrete improvements.