Volkswagen to invest EUR 73 billion in future technologies

This was announced following the company’s Supervisory Board meeting. VW will increase its investments in Capex and R&D from 40% to 50 % of the groups total investments of around EUR 150 billion. The automaker will also double its investments in digitalisation to EUR 27 billion by mid-decade. About EUR 35 billion will be spent on battery-electric vehicles and a further EUR 11 billion has been earmarked for the development of hybrid vehicles of existing models. “As part of Volkswagen Group’s investment planning, the Board of Management and Supervisory Board today set the cornerstones for securing the Group’s future success. The transformation of the Group and its brands and the strategic focus on the core areas of mobility will be consistently implemented,” says Hans Dieter Pötsch, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Volkswagen Group, in a press release “In the coming years, it will be crucial to also reach a leading position in car software in order to meet people’s needs for individual, sustainable and fully connected mobility in the future. To that end, we have doubled our digitalization spend,” adds said Herbert Diess, Chief Executive Officer of the Volkswagen Group. Due to the crucial role that software will play for Volkswagen’s future success, capital spending on digitalisation will total around EUR 27 billion, double the amount set in its previous plans. This includes spending on the Group’s Car.Software organisation, which was launched earlier this year. The goal is to build a proprietary software stack, which will be deployed in Audi’s Artemis project from 2024. In Salzgitter, the Group will invest around one billion euros in btattery technology. In conjunction with its Swedish joint venture partner Northvolt, Volkswagen will build a cell production facility there that will start operation in 2024 aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Germany as an industrial location.