#Strategy

At the Annual General Meeting of Volkswagen AG, the shareholders followed the proposal of the Board of Management and Supervisory Board and resolved by a majority of 99,99 % to pay an increased dividend of EUR 9.00 per ordinary share and EUR 9.06 per preference share for the 2023 financial year. This corresponds to a payout ratio of 28 per cent and an increase of EUR 0.30 per share. Volkswagen AG is distributing a total of EUR 4.5 billion to its shareholders for the 2023 financial year.

The Beijing Auto Show took place from April 25 to May 5. At its Media Night on April 24, the Volkswagen Group presented product highlights and progress in its "in China for China" strategy.

Volkswagen launches the next phase of its transformation in China. At its China Capital Markets Day in Beijing, Volkswagen Group presented its strategy update for the Chinese market. The focus is on its target to strengthen tech capabilities and reduce costs in the strongly growing market. The Group plans to achieve cost parity with local competition in the compact car segment by 2026 and gain further momentum through a re-aligned strategy and an efficiency program that was launched already. In addition, the company underlined its commitment to its “in China, for China” strategy: It presented measures to cater even better to the needs of Chinese customers, accelerate model developments and time-to-market as well as significantly reduce costs. In addition, the aim is to better harness the innovative power of the market and increase local value creation through more in-house development capabilities and strong local partnerships. As a result, the Group aims to strengthen its position as the #1 international OEM in the Chinese market and has set ambitious targets until 2030: Approximately 4 million vehicles sold and growth in proportionate operating result to around EUR 3.0 billion, including the fully consolidated Anhui joint venture.

The Volkswagen Group is stepping up the pace of innovation ‘in China, for China’ and systematically driving forward the digitalisation of its model portfolio. Together with XPENG, Volkswagen is introducing the China Electrical Architecture (CEA), a zonal Electrical/Electronic (E/E) architecture. Jointly developed by experts from XPENG, Volkswagen China Technology Company (VCTC) and CARIAD China, the CEA will ensure the rapid expansion of digital services in the Volkswagen brand’s China-specific vehicles. Advanced features such as autonomous driving can be seamlessly integrated and continuously updated and extended 'over the air' (‘OTA’). At the same time, thanks to the zonal structure, the number of electronic control units in previous systems can be reduced by up to 30 per cent. As a result, the zonal E/E architecture will be cost competitive with local offerings. The new digital network is envisaged to be used in locally produced VW brand electric vehicles from 2026. The move will strengthen Volkswagen’s ‘electric offensive’ and mark the latest decisive step as one of the industry leaders in the age of intelligent connected vehicles (ICV).

The Volkswagen Group has been a pioneer for individual mobility in China for 40 years. Today, Volkswagen's network in China features 39 plants, 90,000 employees and around 50 million customers who drive a Group brand vehicle. Together with its Joint Venture partners, Volkswagen is an integral part of China's industrial ecosystem and has created strong foundations. With its rapid transformation towards fully connected electric mobility, the Group is consistently realigning its activities in the region. Through the consistent implementation of its 'In China, for China' strategy, Volkswagen is driving forward the localisation of development and aligning its products with changing customer needs. In the latest strategic milestone, Volkswagen is further expanding its production and innovation hub in Hefei, Anhui Province, with investments totaling 2.5 billion EUR. In addition to the expansion of R&D capacity, preparations are also being made for the production of two Volkswagen brand models, which are currently being developed together with Chinese partner XPENG. Production of the first model, an SUV in the mid-size segment, will begin as early as 2026.

The Volkswagen Group is welcoming further strategic collaboration and significantly accelerating its development efforts in the field of automated and autonomous driving. Now, Volkswagen is intensifying its partnership with Mobileye in the domain of automated driving. Together, the two companies will bring new automated driving functions to series production. Mobileye is to provide technologies for partially and highly automated driving based on its Mobileye SuperVision and Mobileye Chauffeur platforms. In future, the Volkswagen Group’s Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche brands will use these technologies to rapidly introduce new premium-oriented driving functions to their model portfolios across powertrain types. These include advanced assistance systems for highway and urban driving, such as automated overtaking on multilane highways in permitted areas and conditions, as well as automatic stopping at red lights and stop signs, and support in intersections and roundabouts. In addition, Mobileye is set to supply further technology components for automated driving to Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. In the long term, the Volkswagen Group aims to rely on its own complete in-house system: Partnerships with Bosch and Qualcomm, as well as with Horizon Robotics in China, will be continued with a focus. All driver assistance systems are to be based on the software architectures developed by Volkswagen’s Cariad company.

Volkswagen Group Charging (Elli) opened its large European charging network to mobility companies outside the Volkswagen Group for the first time. With Elli's extensive charging infrastructure and innovative digital mobility solutions, customers can now enjoy seamless access to a vast and high-quality charging network across Europe. The new product SIXT charge simplifies the entire charging experience: from access to Elli`s charging network to find charge points, starting and ending charging sessions, and complete billing and payment.

Volkswagen Group is consistently driving its e-offensive in China for China. Volkswagen and XPENG have entered into a Master Agreement on platform and software collaboration, marking a significant milestone in their strategic partnership. In December 2023, Volkswagen completed the acquisition of shares amounting to around 4.99 per cent of the total issued and outstanding share capital of XPENG, at that time following the announcement of the partnership in July. The Master Agreement centres on the initial joint development of two mid-size Volkswagen brand vehicles, which will launch first with a SUV. This will enable the VW brand to expand its existing portfolio quickly, to reach new target customer groups in the fast-growing EV market in China. The two jointly developed e-models will be equipped with state-of-the-art software and hardware, offering Chinese customers an intuitive, connected digital experience and advanced automated driving functions. All parties are contributing their respective core competences to the joint development work.

Today, the first Volkswagen Group retail partner received its goTOzero RETAIL certificate. It was developed for the global partner network of some 17,000 dealerships from around 150 countries as part of the company’s goTOzero environmental mission statement. One important goal is to decrease the CO₂ footprint of the network by at least 30 percent until 2030 compared to 2020. Participating partners of the brands Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Škoda, SEAT/CUPRA and Audi are given a tool to record their environmental performance and receive information on how to further improve it. The certification serves to measure and control the implementation of the environmental strategy at retail level in addition to the Group’s own comprehensive sustainability activities. The certification process assesses around 70 environmental criteria that retailers can influence directly. Each of these is related to one of goTOzero's four focus areas: climate change, resources, environmental compliance and ecosystems.

In the future, digital products based on artificial intelligence (AI) will play a key role for the Volkswagen Group. New infotainment and navigation applications, high-performance speech recognition, extended vehicle functions and the deep integration of digital ecosystems in the car will bring considerable benefits to customers, enhancing the product experience. This is why Volkswagen has established a specialized “AI Lab”. The company will act as a globally networked competence center and incubator. AI Lab will identify new product ideas for the Volkswagen Group, and coordinate them internally within the Group. As the need arises, this will also include collaboration with the tech sector in Europe, China and North America. By adopting this approach, the Volkswagen Group intends to simplify collaboration with technology companies with a view to making optimum use of the innovation potential and speed of the AI sector. The objective is to rapidly develop digital prototypes and transfer them to the Group brands for implementation.

The Volkswagen Group is strengthening its Technical Development Board function in the China region as part of its “In China, for China” strategy. Thomas Ulbrich, former Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Brand for “New Mobility”, will head up Technical Development for the Group in China from April 1, 2024. In his new capacity, Ulbrich, who has already held two management positions for the Group in China, will continue to advance the technological localization of the portfolio. He succeeds Marcus Hafkemeyer, who – with his extensive experience of China – will support the company’s transformation in a new role in the Group.

The Volkswagen brand has achieved an important milestone in the “Accelerate Forward/ Road to 6.5” global performance program, with management and employee representatives reaching agreement on key points to streamline the company, following intensive negotiations. The objective of the three-year program is to secure the Volkswagen Group’s core brand competitiveness, ensure it is future-proof and sustainable in the long term. The Volkswagen brand aims to make a positive earnings contribution totaling ten billion euros by 2026, also to offset negative effects such as inflation and higher raw material costs. The operating return on sales is expected to improve sustainably to 6.5 percent in 2026. The Volkswagen brand projects that the program will deliver positive earnings contributions of up to four billion euros as early as 2024. To achieve this, the Company concentrates on performance-enhancing and cost-saving measures in the program’s three focus areas: optimizing material and product costs, reducing fixed and manufacturing costs and increasing revenues. The Company and the employee representatives have also reached agreement on staff reduction measures to cut personnel and labor costs. These measures will apply throughout Volkswagen AG. As such, from January 2024 the Company will extend its partial retirement schemes to all employees born in 1967 (and for severely handicapped employees born in 1968), to reduce administrative staff costs in particular. The current hiring freeze and access freeze to the Tarif Plus salary group will continue until further notice.

Volkswagen Group-owned battery company PowerCo SE steps up its activities in Canada. Ramping up its cell production activities in Europe and North America, the site of its future cell gigafactory in St. Thomas, Ontario, is now prepared for groundbreaking and start of construction in 2024. Sebastian Wolf, Chief Operations Officer of PowerCo SE, said at an event on site: “We are fully on track. Site preparation, the first phase of Gigafactory St. Thomas, has been completed. We are now ready for the next stage on our path to the sustainable and responsible production of battery cells. PowerCo will be a reliable partner for the people in St. Thomas and Ontario.”

The Volkswagen Group is systematically strengthening its development expertise ‘in China for China’. To drive this strategy, Volkswagen is expanding its site in Hefei in eastern China into a state-of-the-art production, development, and innovation hub. At its heart is the Volkswagen China Technology Company (VCTC) – the Group's largest development centre outside Germany, with a clear focus on intelligent, fully connected vehicles. VCTC aims to reduce the time to market for vehicles and components by 30 percent through efficient development processes and the use of cutting-edge technologies. As a result, the Group will better harness the growth momentum of the Chinese market. The hub is also taking on key development tasks, including the development of a local electric platform for the entry-level segment. Derived from the Group's modular electric drive matrix (MEB), the new platform is intended to open up further market segments in China. From 2026, the platform will form the basis for additional battery-powered vehicles (BEV) specifically tailored to the wishes of Chinese customers. The development time of just 36 months is around a third shorter than the Volkswagen Group's previous timescales.