All Press Releases

The Annual General Meeting of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft took place today online for the first time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The shareholders voted by a majority of 99.98 percent to approve the recommendation of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board to pay the same dividend as last year of 4.80 EUR per ordinary share and 4.86 EUR per preferred share for fiscal year 2019. As in 2018, approximately 2.4 billion EUR will therefore be distributed to the shareholders. The resolution on the formal approval of the members of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board who held office in 2019 was passed by 94.33 percent of the shareholders represented at the Annual General Meeting.

The Volkswagen Group today confirmed its outlook for 2020 and underscored the planned future investments despite the COVID-19 pandemic. “In both 2019 and 2020, we took significant steps towards becoming a leading provider of electric, digital mobility, achieving important milestones”, Group CEO Herbert Diess said at the virtual Annual General Meeting of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft. “The transformation of the Group is not being held back by corona, but accelerated by it.” The Group plans to invest €33 billion in e-mobility by 2024 and aims to become the market leader in battery-electric vehicles. A further important success factor is the new VW.OS operating system that is being developed by Car.Software.Org and will be used for the first time in Audi’s Artemis project. €14 billion alone will be invested in building IT expertise and in autonomous driving by 2024. “The fact that the car will develop into a fully networked mobility device in the next ten years will be much more far-reaching than the transformation of propulsion”, Diess said. Volkswagen expects the upward trend to continue for the remainder of the year and confirmed the outlook for a positive operating result for 2020.

The Car.Software Org of the Volkswagen Group is acquiring the front camera software business area of software specialist HELLA Aglaia Mobile Vision GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA, including the associated testing and validation departments. Through this transaction, the software company intends to expand its competence in the field of image processing and to forge ahead with the development of automated driving functions for all Volkswagen Group brands. In the course of the acquisition, about half of the employees of HELLA Aglaia are to be transferred to the Car.Software Org. The acquisition, which is still subject to approval by the anti-trust authorities, is expected to be completed at the beginning of 2021.

The Volkswagen Group has received confirmation from the independent Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) that the Group’s climate targets fulfil the conditions for limiting global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius”. SBTi supporting organisations include the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), UN Global Compact, the World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The SBTi evaluates only genuine CO₂ reductions over a period of at least ten years - without taking into consideration any CO₂-compensating climate projects. Volkswagen is planning to reduce CO₂ emissions during production and use of its vehicles by 30 per cent of 2018 levels by 2030. Oliver Blume, Porsche CEO and in his role as Volkswagen AG Group Management Board Member for Production and the Environment stressed: “We are determined as a Group to be climate neutral by 2050. To that end we have now set ourselves an ambitious interim target. The key levers are our e-mobility offensive and switching our plants over to green electricity.”

Today, the Volkswagen Group successfully placed its first green bonds with a volume of € 2 billion in the market. The benchmark bonds, which are denominated in euros, have terms of 8 and 12 years and coupons of 0.875% and 1.250% respectively. Investors showed considerable interest, including both international and specialized green bond investors. This is the first issuance based on the Green Finance Framework (GFF) for sustainability-oriented financial instruments presented in March. The proceeds of the bonds will be used in a targeted way to fund the modular electric drive matrix (MEB and the new BEV models ID.3 and ID.4. Annual reporting on the use of the proceeds and the environmental effects achieved will create transparency for investors.

Volkswagen AG today announced that the Independent Compliance Monitor, Larry D. Thompson, certified that Volkswagen has met its commitment under its Plea Agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to design and implement a compliance program that will prevent and detect violations of anti-fraud and environmental laws. Certification covers Volkswagen AG and its subsidiaries and affiliates other than Porsche AG and Porsche Cars North America, which were not part of the Monitorship.