All Press Releases

Volkswagen, together with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and integration partner Siemens, is opening up the Industrial Cloud to other manufacturing and technology companies. New partner companies will be able to connect with Volkswagen plants and to contribute their own software applications for optimizing production processes to the Industrial Cloud. This way, a rapidly growing range of industrial software applications for Volkswagen’s plants will be created. Each location will be able to obtain applications for its machinery, tools and equipment direct from the Industrial Cloud to optimize production (app store approach). The Volkswagen Group expects significant efficiency and productivity gains at its plants. The partner companies will be able to scale and further develop their applications in one of the world’s largest automobile production networks. This will also enable them to optimize their own processes and products. As a first step, eleven pioneering international companies, ABB, ASCon Systems, BearingPoint, Celonis, Dürr, GROB-WERKE, MHP, NavVis, SYNAOS, Teradata and WAGO, will be joining the Industrial Cloud.

Volkswagen AG and the automotive supplier Brose are planning to create a joint venture devoted to complete seats, seat structures and seat components. The Volkswagen subsidiary SITECH will become part of the joint venture. Brose will hold a 50 percent stake in the company. Volkswagen AG and the Brose Group will each own half of the company. Representatives of both companies signed a memorandum of understanding covering the joint venture today in Coburg.

TRATON SE is reorganizing its Board of Management team. With effect of July 15, 2020, Andreas Renschler will be handing over the chair of the Board of Management to Matthias Gründler, who was CFO of the commercial vehicle manufacturer with the brands MAN, Scania and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus until May 2018. Dr. Andreas Tostmann, currently a member of the Board of Management for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand with responsibility for Production and Logistics, will furthermore be taking over from Joachim Drees, who will be leaving the TRATON Board of Management by best mutual consent likewise with effect as of July 15, 2020. Furthermore, Prof. Dr. Carsten Intra, currently the Board of Management member responsible for HR, will take over as Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. This was announced by the company on Tuesday following a meeting of the Supervisory Board in Munich.

Andreas Renschler will be leaving the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG and the Board of Management of TRATON SE with effect as of July 15th 2020. Mr. Renschler is leaving the company by best mutual consent. This was announced by the company on Tuesday in Wolfsburg. Mr. Renschler’s successor as Chairman of the Board of Management of TRATON will be Matthias Gründler, who was Chief Financial Officer of the company until May 2018.

Volkswagen Group Security is providing two Passat Variant GTE vehicles to assist the charitable association in its work supporting victims of crime. Volkswagen is also lending the organization a Volkswagen T6 and the historic Volkswagen T2 for a nationwide information tour of Germany.

Volkswagen AG today announced the results of the third and final audit prepared by the company’s Independent Compliance Auditor, Larry D. Thompson. The report did not find any new violations and states that Volkswagen has met its obligations under the Third Partial Consent Decrees with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and California Attorney General.

In production, the Volkswagen Group is continuously moving ahead with future-oriented technologies and digitalization. “Industrial Computer Vision” image recognition and processing technology is to help improve productivity in production by 30 percent from 2016 to 2025. “The use of this technology offers considerable potential for making our production plants even more efficient. By 2024, we already expect cost reductions running into the double digit million euro range throughout the group,” says Gerd Walker, Head of Volkswagen Group Production. “The focus is on applications which we can develop at one location and then roll out throughout the Group.” The first two Computer Vision solutions from Porsche and Audi are currently being prepared for Group-wide rollout and connection to the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud.

At the “Summer of Purpose” in Munich, Andreas Renschler spoke about the key lessons the commercial vehicle manufacturer with the Scania, MAN, and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus brands had taken from the coronavirus crisis to date. “The experience from the coronavirus pandemic will strengthen our resilience as a society because we’ve become more flexible and even more focused. The same goes for the TRATON GROUP,” said Andreas Renschler, CEO of TRATON and member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, at the event, the idea for which came from the Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus. “The lockdown has clearly demonstrated the speed with which we can adapt when we need to,” added Renschler.