Strategy

As technology advances, the automotive industry is rapidly forging ahead with its transformation toward e-mobility and digitalization. We therefore expect the market for electric vehicles to grow strongly in the next few years, meaning that the cost-efficient and sustainable production of battery systems and the expansion of the charging infrastructure will be crucial to success.

The shift to connected, intelligent and eventually self-driving vehicles will, however, bring more wide-reaching changes for the automotive industry. Autonomous driving will change the customer's mobility experience forever and lay the ground for new business models. Sources of revenue will gradually shift and will expand beyond the core product of the automobile. Increasing software development capabilities in order to excite customers with constantly improving digital functionality is the prerequisite for this.
In equal measure to technological trends, the global economic and geopolitical environment is also posing increased challenges for the automotive industry. These include, for example, the economic influ­ence of the largest mobility markets, China, the USA and Europe, and their diverging development.

Sustainability will continue to be a recurring theme in the business world and will gain further perti­nence, driven by the increasingly noticeable consequences of climate change, a greater consciousness of sustainable lifestyles on the part of the customer and, not least, underlying factors such as the Paris Climate Agreement. As we transition from automotive manufacturer to mobility group, we are resetting our priorities with NEW AUTO and positioning ourselves for the future. We are keeping our aim of being a world-leading provider of sustainable mobility firmly in our sights and making the Group more focused, efficient, innovative, customer-oriented and sustainable, as well as systematically gearing it toward profit­able growth.

To this end, we have established 12 Group initiatives across the brand groups. We will use these to develop the competences needed to implement the strategy. The focus is on the main multidisciplinary areas addressed by our technology platforms –mechatronics, software, battery & charging, and mobility solutions – on which the five tech initiatives described below are based. A further seven base initiatives form the foundation for the Volkswagen Group’s strategic realignment. These are ESG, Decarbonization & Integrity, Business Model 2.0, North America (NAR) Region, China Region, Group Steering Model, People & Transformation and Financing the Transformation.

For the operationalization of the strategy, the most important goals of each calendar year are defined and a TOP-10 program is developed. The TOP-10 program 2024 covers the areas of performance, products, regions, digitalization, software, architectures, battery, mobility solutions, sustainability as well as team & organization.

Battery & Charging – Cell And Battery Strategy

The battery is a key component in an electric vehicle, and an important cost factor. The appeal and market success of e-mobility is determined not only by the price, but also by the vehicle´s range and the charging speed. We must become a profit-generating expert across the entire battery life cycle to achieve our objective of transforming into a world-leading provider of sustainable mobility. To this end, the Cell and Battery Strategy tech initiative pools expertise across the Group and is driving the transformation process in cooperation with our strategic partners. The aspects covered include battery management, cell production and recycling. Our aim is to develop battery cell technology into a core competence in the Group, and we are also working with partners to achieve this. At the heart of this strategy is the new unified cell, which can contain different chemistries and will be used in up to 80% of Group models by 2030. The excellent economies of scale this generates will reduce costs by up to 50 % and put us in a leading cost position. To cover the high demand for battery cells, Volkswagen plans to build six gigafactories in Europe alone, with a production capacity totaling 240 GWh.

Further information regarding Battery