Goals and Strategies

The Volkswagen Group sent a strong signal with the launch of its Strategy 2018 in 2008. The clear and ambitious goals triggered significant momentum within the Company, laying the foundation for the Group’s significant success in recent years. In this context, and in light of the fundamental changes both in the automotive industry and within the Company itself, now is the time to realign the Volkswagen Group, both technologically and strategically. The basis for this realignment is our Strategy 2018, in which we defined four goals that are intended to make Volkswagen the most successful, fascinating and sustainable automaker in the world:

• Volkswagen intends to deploy intelligent innovations and technologies to become a world leader in customer satisfaction and quality. We see high customer satisfaction as one of the key requirements for the Company’s long-term success.
• The goal is to generate unit sales of more than 10 million vehicles a year; in particular, Volkswagen intends to capture an above-average share of growth in the major growth markets.
• Volkswagen’s aim is a long-term return on sales before tax of at least 8% so as to ensure that the Group’s solid financial position is guaranteed and that it retains the ability to act even in difficult market periods.
• Volkswagen aims to be the most attractive employer in the automotive industry. The aim is to have the best team in the sector: highly qualified, fit and above all motivated.

Our particular focus is on the environmentally friendly orientation and profitability of our vehicle projects so that the Volkswagen Group can achieve success even in more challenging conditions. We are selectively expanding our range of vehicles to safeguard the strong position enjoyed by our individual brands and to systematically increase our competitive advantages.

Our activities are primarily designed to set new standards in the areas of vehicles, drivetrains and lightweight construction. Our modular toolkit system, which we are enhancing on an ongoing basis, allows us to improve the Group’s production efficiency and flexibility, and thus also its profitability.

In addition, we intend to continually expand our customer base by increasing satisfaction among our existing customers and acquiring new customers around the world, particularly in the growth markets. In order to ensure this, we are increasingly adapting our products and services to the specific local requirements. We shall continue the measures we are currently taking to improve our productivity and quality regardless of the economic situation and without any time limit. These include our regional development teams and our cooperation with local suppliers, among other things. We are also continuing to standardize processes in both the direct and indirect areas and are reducing production throughput times. Together with disciplined cost and investment management, these measures play a major role in ensuring that we reach our long-term profitability targets and safeguard solid long-term liquidity.

We will only successfully meet the challenges of today and tomorrow if all employees – from vocational trainees through to the Board of Management – consistently deliver excellence. Outstanding performance, the success that comes from it and participation in its rewards are therefore at the heart of our human resources strategy.

Satisfied customers and motivated employees, excellent quality products and services, sustainable profitability and ecological responsibility are the cornerstones of the Strategy 2018, and remain unchanged. Additionally, the “Future Tracks” initiative has already laid the valuable groundwork for the realignment, enabling us to address the issues of the future such as e-mobility, the digital shift and new business models. We are developing our Strategy 2025 for the Volkswagen Group on this basis, and aim to present the results starting in mid-2016. The initial phase focuses on three issues: digitalization, integrity and legal affairs, and sustainability.