Volkswagen’s Board of Management has decided that the ‘TRANSFORM 2025+’ program will set the course for the brand over the next decade and beyond. The new strategy focuses on clearer brand positioning across the various regions and segments, backed by significant improvements in efficiency and productivity. At the same time, the brand will be making ‘massive’ investments in e-mobility and connectivity.
“Our goals are high and our strategy is very ambitious,” explained Dr Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Volkswagen brand board of management. “We want to benefit from change and to take Volkswagen into the lead in the new automobile industry with determination. Over the next few years, Volkswagen will change radically. Very few things will stay as they are. In the final resort, the new strategy is a major transformation program.”
The German OEM has said that the reorientation of its brand is to take place in three phases. In phase 1, up to 2020, the brand will be entirely restructuring its core business and completing a transformation along the entire value stream. At the same time, the company will develop new competences. In Phase 2, up to 2025, Volkswagen intends to take the lead in e-mobility on the basis of its regained strength as a leading, profitable volume manufacturer. The strategy in this phase aims to create a broader earnings base, for example through new mobility services. Volkswagen also intends to play a key role in shaping the major transformation in the industry expected after 2025. The objective is to achieve a leading role in the new world of mobility by 2030.
“From 2020, we will be launching our major e-mobility offensive,” added Diess. “As a volume manufacturer, we intend to play a key role in the breakthrough of the electric car. We are not aiming for niche products but for the heart of the automobile market. By 2025, we want to sell a million electric cars per year and to be the world market leader in e-mobility. Our future electric cars will be the new trademark of Volkswagen.”
The e-mobility offensive is to be financed by a number of measures including the discontinuation of certain low-volume, low-earnings conventional models and model variants. This will release funds in excess of €2.5bn for e-mobility.