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TRATON has formally undertaken the transformation into a European company. After its entry into the commercial register, which is expected to take place in a few weeks, the company will operate under the name “TRATON SE” – thus reflecting the Group’s international identity. TRATON expects the company’s new legal form to yield positive effects: “The SE business form gives us the opportunity to even more closely integrate the regional companies within the TRATON GROUP and position ourselves even better in the global arena with a European corporate identity,” said Renschler.

From January to November, the Volkswagen Group boosted worldwide deliveries by 1.8 percent to 9.92 million vehicles. Despite a tense market environment with stagnating overall markets, a deliveries record for 2018 as a whole is therefore within reach. In November, the Volkswagen Group delivered a total of 940,900 vehicles throughout the world, corresponding to a fall of 5.4 percent compared with the prior-year month. Thanks to further progress with the WLTP changeover of the model range, deliveries in Europe were affected less severely in November. At 3.0 percent, the fall compared with the prior-year month was considerably lower than in the two preceding months. Dr. Christian Dahlheim, Head of Group Sales: “The rise in worldwide deliveries in the course of the year is a very respectable result. Although the volume target is no longer our top priority, high volumes allow us to achieve economies of scale. In November, there was a reduction in the effect of WLTP in Europe. We are confident that we will be able to close 2018 with a figure slightly above the previous record level of 2017 despite the challenging market environment.“

In its first interim report, today the Sustainability Council of the Volkswagen Group has published an interim report on its activities from October 2016 to October 2018 in Berlin. The eight-member international panel summarizes its experience of working with the Volkswagen Group and assesses progress in sustainability matters and describes its attitude towards the future development of the Group in this area.

Yesterday, the "Open Source Lab for Sustainable Mobility" has started dialogue as a platform for sustainable mobility in Berlin. It is funded by the Volkswagen Group Sustainability Council, is independent in its research agenda and is obliged to publish all research results and other results.

As a result of the changeover to the new WLTP test procedure, the Volkswagen Group delivered fewer vehicles in October than in the prior-year month. All in all, 846,300 vehicles were handed over to customers throughout the world, a fall of 10.0 percent. In the month under review, the fall in deliveries in Europe, at 15.6% compared with the previous year, was significantly less pronounced than in September. Double-digit growth was recorded in South America, contributing to an increase of 2.6 percent to 8.98 million vehicles delivered from January to October in a stagnating overall market. Dr. Christian Dahlheim, Head of Group Sales: “As regards the WLTP changeover, we have already passed the low point in Europe. This positive devel-opment should continue in November and December as all our brands continue to make progress with the changeover of models to the new test cycle. For the year as a whole, we expect deliveries to slightly exceed the prior-year figure.“

The Volkswagen Group is investing heavily in its future. Over the coming five years to the end of 2023, the Company will be spending almost €44 billion alone on the future issues of e-mobility, autonomous driving, new mobility services and digitalization in its vehicles and at its plants. This represents approximately one-third of total expenditure for the 2019-2023 planning period and is the outcome of the Group’s planning round, which has now been completed and was discussed and endorsed by the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft at its meeting today.

With the South Korean battery cell manufacturer SK Innovation (SKI), the Volkswagen Group has named a further strategic supplier for electric vehicles based on the Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB). SKI will supply the batteries for North America and a share of the batteries for the production of Volkswagen Group full-electric vehicles in Europe. The most important strategic suppliers of battery cells for the equipment of the Group’s rapidly glowing electric fleet in the major regions of the world have therefore been nominated.

The Volkswagen Group is making further progress with its work with quantum computers. For the first time, Volkswagen experts have succeeded in using a quantum computer to develop a traffic management system that will replace forecasting for urban traffic volumes, transport demand and travel times with precise calculations. As a result, public transportation organizations, taxi companies, and transport service providers will be able to deploy their fleets considerably more efficiently while minimizing waiting times for passengers. Volkswagen and quantum computing company D-Wave are presenting the project at the WebSummit technology conference in Lisbon.