Volkswagen And Suppliers Start Countdown To Id.

December 7, 2018 by Volkswagen

•More than 30 CEOs from suppliers meet Group CEO Diess and Volkswagen brand Board members

•Volkswagen ID.1 is the start of the largest electric offensive in the automotive industry

•Up to 15 million vehicles based on MEB expected in first wave; investments of €11 billion up to 2023

•New types of cooperation between manufacturer and component suppliers

Wolfsburg – About one year before the start of production of the fully electric ID., Volkswagen has announced further details of its electric offensive. Throughout the Group, up to 15 million vehicles based on the Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB) are to be built in the first wave, compared with 10 million vehicles according to previous plans. Up to 2023, the brand will be investing more than €11 billion in e-mobility, digitalization, autonomous driving and new mobility services, including more than €9 billion in the ID. family. The electric offensive was also a topic at the MEB Supplier Event. Yesterday, more than 30 CEOs from the key component suppliers came to Wolfsburg to usher in the hot phase of preparations for the ID. together with Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen Group, and members of the Volkswagen brand Board of Management.

'The Volkswagen brand is consistently forging ahead with its electric offensive. This also includes cooperating with strong partners. The new Volkswagen ID. will feature the technologies and ideas of the most innovative companies in our industry,' said Ralf Brandstatter, Chief Operating Officer and member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen brand responsible for Procurement. Production of the ID. is to start at the end of 2019 at the Zwickau plant. 'We are now entering the decisive phase. In about 12 months, the new ID. will usher in a new era for Volkswagen, comparable with the first Beetle or the first Golf. We are preparing for this event extremely carefully together with our partners,' said Thomas Ulbrich, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen brand responsible for E-Mobility.

With the fully electric, fully connected ID., Volkswagen will be bringing onto the roads a new generation of vehicles that will set new standards for digitalization and connectivity. The ID. will always be online and connected to the Internet via an Automotive Cloud. Updates and upgrades will continuously make the car better. Against this backdrop, Volkswagen is stepping up its cooperation with software companies and developers. One of these companies is Elektrobit (EB) from Erlangen. 'The example of the ID. shows that software is essential for the car of the future. Together with Volkswagen, we are working to ensure that our software makes vehicles safe and reliable on one hand and allows the convenient use of innovative services from the cloud on the other hand,' said Alexander Kocher, President EB.

Cooperation among equals

In the case of the ID., Volkswagen involved its top suppliers in design and development at a considerably earlier stage and more intensively. Ralf Brandstatter: 'We have redefined our cooperation with suppliers. We say what we need and the suppliers tell us how they can produce it with the best possible quality levels as efficiently as possible. This means that we can rapidly incorporate the best innovations into the car. Customers benefit directly from this new type of cooperation.' Suppliers also appreciate this cooperation among equals. 'Safe, clean and intelligent: for the ID., we are bringing our skills from the technological areas of networking and electrification onto the road together. For us, this cooperation has a model character. It shows how we can successfully shape the future of mobility together in the context of complex transformations,' said Dr. Elmar Degenhart, CEO of Continental AG.

The Volkswagen brand intends to make the electric car popular with as many people as possible and to ensure that it makes a breakthrough. With the ID. family, Volkswagen will be bringing onto the roads a new vehicle generation that makes optimum use of the possibilities of e-mobility from 2020 onwards. Among other features, the models in the ID. family offer a long range, a spacious interior, dynamic driving behavior and an entirely new level of digital connectivity. The first model will be the compact ID; this is to be produced from the end of 2019 at the Zwickau plant, which is currently being transformed into the highest-performance electric car factory in Europe. By 2025 at the latest, the brand intends to sell 1 million electric cars per year throughout the world.

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About Continental AG

Continental develops pioneering technologies and services for sustainable and connected mobility of people and their goods. Founded in 1871, the technology company offers safe, efficient, intelligent and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. In 2017, Continental generated sales of €44 billion and currently employs more than 244,000 people in 61 countries and markets.

About Elektrobit (EB)

Elektrobit (EB) is an award-winning and visionary global supplier of embedded and connected software products and services for the automotive industry. A leader in automotive software with over 30 years serving the industry, EB's software powers over 1 billion devices in more than 100 million vehicles and offers flexible, innovative solutions for connected car infrastructure, human machine interface (HMI) technologies, navigation, driver assistance, electronic control units (ECUs), and software engineering services. EB is a wholly owned subsidiary of Continental.

You will find a story on EB at www.volkswagen-newsroom.com.

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About the Volkswagen brand: 'We make the future real'

The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand is present in more than 150 markets throughout the world and produces vehicles at over 50 locations in 14 countries. In 2017, Volkswagen delivered 6.23 million vehicles including bestselling models such as the Golf, Tiguan, Jetta or Passat. Currently, 198,000 people work for Volkswagen across the globe. The brand also has 7,700 dealerships with 74,000 employees. Volkswagen is forging ahead consistently with the further development of automobile production. E-mobility, smart mobility and the digital transformation of the brand are the key strategic topics for the future.