Volkswagen will invest €3.5-billion (US$3.7-billion) in e-mobility and digitalization for its German plants.
To bring Volkswagen up-to-date in the future-oriented areas of e-mobility and digitalization, the company will be making a massive investment in new technologies. The German plants are to enter the field of developing and producing electric vehicles and components. A pilot plant for battery cells and cell modules is to be developed. Volkswagen will be investing €3.5 billion in the transformation of the company.
New competences in future-oriented areas are to be developed at the various locations. About 9,000 additional jobs with a secure future are to be created. Volkswagen will mainly be filling these vacancies with existing employees and will also be recruiting specialists from outside the Group. Over the next few years, Volkswagen will be cutting up to 23,000 jobs via natural fluctuation and partial early retirement, taking the demographic curve into account. It is expressly stated that this reduction in the workforce will be accomplished without compulsory redundancies.
The pact for the future includes agreements on new future-oriented vehicle products. The plants at Wolfsburg and Zwickau are to assume responsibility for the production of electric vehicles based on the Modular Electric Drive Kit (MEB). By investing in e-mobility, Volkswagen will create jobs with a secure future at these locations. In order to ensure efficient capacity deployment, a further model is to be produced at the Emden plant. At Wolfsburg, an additional Volkswagen Group vehicle will also be produced.
Future-oriented work is to be divided between the main German components plants. Brunswick will continue to produce the battery system for the Modular Transverse Toolkit and will also be developing and producing the battery system for the Modular Electric Drive Kit (MEB). Kassel is to develop the MEB drive system and to be responsible for the assembly of the entire system in addition to electric transmission production. Salzgitter will produce and supply MEB drive system components. In addition, the plant will be building a pilot facility for battery cells and cell modules.
By 2020, the Volkswagen brand intends to be completely repositioned.
A settlement for Volkswagen 2.0-liter diesel cars with "defeat device" software was approved at the end of October, and the process of offering buybacks to affected owners is now underway. Owners can sell their cars back to VW Group for a predetermined amount, or choose to wait for possible modifications to be approved that would allow the cars to... 
The Volkswagen Group has reached a preliminary agreement with U.S. regulators to address 83,000 3.0-liter V-6 diesel vehicles with illegal "defeat device" software. The agreement—which covers a variety of SUVs and sedans sold by Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen—must still be finalized and approved by a federal judge. Affected cars will... 
As Volkswagen aims to resolve numerous lawsuits related to its use of illegal "defeat device" software in diesel cars, federal agencies are continuing their criminal investigations of the company's actions. As part of its investigation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is now seeking more information on whether Volkswagen destroyed cell phones... 
The original Volkswagen Microbus is an iconic design that is still instantly recognizable decades after the last ones were sold in the U.S. That might explain why rumors of the vehicle's return are so persistent. A new VW Microbus has been whispered about multiple times over the past few years, and now the automaker has teased us with photos of... 
VW Group announced yesterday it had reached a preliminary agreement with various regulators to resolve civil suits related to "defeat device" software in vehicles fitted with its 3.0-liter V-6 diesel engines. Those cars—a variety of SUVs and sedans sold by Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen—will either be modified to comply with emission... 
These days, it's possible to order virtually anything online—but for the most part, buying a car still requires going to a physical dealership and signing papers. But, in one country at least, Volkswagen is experimenting with an alternative. The German automaker is launching an online-sales scheme in Denmark for its Up minicar. DON'T MISS... 
The Volkswagen 2.0-liter diesel settlement approved by a federal judge at the end of October includes a provision for funding of zero-emission vehicle infrastructure. Under the agreement, VW will spend $2 billion in charging or fueling infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles. Exactly how that money will be spent, and how the program will be... 
The Volkswagen diesel settlement for 2.0-liter TDI models, approved at the end of October, includes a provision for $2 billion in funds to install charging or fueling infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles. There has been considerable debate over what those funds should be used for, and how they should be administered. The vast majority of the... 
As it works toward moving past its diesel-emissions scandal, the Volkswagen Group is making ambitious plans for electric cars. By 2025, the company hopes to be selling 1 million electric cars per year, and it has said it will launch 30 different electric models across multiple brands in the coming years. Now VW says some of those cars may be built... 
It's been over a year since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disclosed Volkswagen's use of illegal "defeat device" software in diesel cars to cheat on emissions tests. But VW had another dirty little secret waiting to come to light. That is its recall rate: cars from its Volkswagen and Audi brands have had the highest rate of recalls... 
When it launched its Phaeton luxury sedan back in 2002, Volkswagen decided that its most opulent car ever should have an equally opulent assembly plant. So it built the "Transparent Factory," a glass-walled plant in Dresden, Germany, that was intended solely to handle Phaeton production. The Phaeton was a vanity project of VW Group's... 
The Volkswagen 2.0-liter diesel settlement was approved in late October, but the company's troubles are far from over. VW still needs to reach a settlement with regulators over a smaller number of TDI models equipped with 3.0-liter V-6 engines, and it faces multiple additional lawsuits. It hopes to address most of those issues before... 
Individual dealers and several competitor automakers have already tried to cash in on the Volkswagen diesel settlement, but VW itself hasn't offered any notable incentives since the settlement was approved. The settlement applies to 2.0-liter 4-cylinder TDI diesel cars found to have illegal "defeat device" software. It gives owners the options to... 
While Volkswagen has received approval from U.S. and European authorities to take some steps to address diesel cars with emissions-cheating "defeat device" software, the diesel scandal is still expanding. A German probe into whether VW should have notified investors of the "defeat devices" earlier now includes the chairman of the company's... 
More than a year after it was revealed that Volkswagen used illegal "defeat device" software in diesel cars to cheat on emissions tests, the company is still working to rebuild its reputation. Another crisis and ensuing public criticism is the last thing VW needs right now. But opaque statements and the effect of German labor laws may have... 
Within weeks, Volkswagen and Audi will starting buying back thousands of 2.0-liter diesel cars sold between 2009 and 2015. So what will the company do once it's legally taken possession of those vehicles, the first of close to half a million caught up in the VW diesel emission scandal? It turns out that they won't initially be disabled, parted... 
Now that the Volkswagen 2.0-liter diesel settlement has has received final approval from a federal judge, VW can soon start sending out buyback offers to affected owners. While the settlement offers the owners the option to keep their cars and wait for modifications that allow them to meet emissions standards, most owners are expected to take...