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Levels 3 and 4 of automated driving, a 48-volt drive system and a platform developed exclusively for e-vehicles – Volkswagen will be showcasing its progress toward integrated, CO₂-neutral mobility at the 40th International Vienna Motor Symposium. The mild hybrid (mHEV) system makes an important contribution to sustainable mobility. Depending on the driving style, it can save around 0.4 litres of fuel over 100 kilometres and cut carbon emissions in the process. Volkswagen will also provide the first ever in-depth insight into its MEB (modular electric drive matrix), the basis for automated driving.

In April, the Volkswagen brand delivered 487,400 vehicles worldwide, 6.2 percent fewer than in April 2018. In the month under review, there were gratifying developments in the USA (+8.7 percent), Canada (+11.1 percent), Russia (+7.3 percent) and Brazil (+7.7 percent). Deliveries by Volkswagen in China were down 6.5 percent but the brand was able to further increase its market share in a shrinking overall market. Volkswagen Sales Board Member Jürgen Stackmann: “We offer extremely attractive models in overall markets which are difficult and shrinking in many cases. In North America, our SUV offensive is bearing fruit and has had a positive effect on the monthly figures. China remains a severe challenge for us and all other market players.”

Months before its official world premiere at the IAA international motor show, the next milestone has already been reached: Today, Volkswagen is officially announcing the name of the first model of the new ID. family. It will be called ID.3. The number 3 is significant in two ways. On the one hand, it indicates the ID. as belonging to the compact segment, which is the class distinction in both internal and industry-wide classification systems. On the other, the ID.3 follows the Beetle and the Golf to introduce the third major chapter of strategic importance for the history of the brand.

In the first quarter of the 2019 financial year, the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand performed solidly in a challenging market environment. The lead brand of the Volkswagen Group was able to boost sales revenue and operating profit in the first three months despite a slight fall in deliveries. With an improved product mix, the sales revenue of the Volkswagen brand grew by 7.1 percent to €21.5 billion. After three months, the operating profit before special impacts was 4.8 percent up on the prior-year figure, at €921 million. Here too, Volkswagen benefited from an improved product mix, positive developments in product costs and especially an improvement in fixed costs. In the first quarter, the operating return on sales was at about the same level as in the previous year, at 4.3 percent. In the reporting period, legal risks gave rise to special items in the amount of €0.4 billion in connection with the processing of the diesel issue.

One day after the world premiere for the new ID. R at the Nürburgring, Romain Dumas drove the first test laps on the Nordschleife in the fully electric race car. On the 20.832-kilometre-long circuit, the Frenchman completed an extensive testing programme, driving two alternative ID. R chassis to make optimal use of the available time. In doing so, Volkswagen Motorsport began the final preparation phase for the attempt to set a new lap record for electric vehicles on the tradition-steeped track in the Eifel with the 500 kW (680 PS) race car.

Volkswagen has set itself a new challenge with the ID. R this year – the Nürburgring-Nordschleife instead of Pikes Peak. A race track instead of a hill climb. Full-throttle sections instead of hair-pins. Because of this, the fully electric-powered ID. R has been continuously developed with respect to its aerodynamics.

The Volkswagen brand delivered 542,700 vehicles worldwide in March, 7.2 percent below the record level for March 2018. The positive trend in the USA (+14.0 percent) could not compensate for lower deliveries in Asia (-10.0 percent), Europe (-3.5 percent) and South America (-12.7 percent). Volkswagen handed over a total of 1,456,400 vehicles to customers in the first quarter, 4.5 percent down on the same period in 2018. In an overall market that also saw deliveries fall, the brand therefore recorded a slight gain in its market share for the first quarter.

The next challenge for the ID. R awaits: in summer, a new record is set to be delivered on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. The team from Volkswagen Motorsport are therefore working intensively on the continuing development of the purely electric-powered race car. The focus of the testing and development phase is on increasing the efficiency of the vehicle. The ID. R, powered by two electric motors with system performance of 500 kW (680 hp), is the racing forerunner to the ID. product family, the future range of purely electric-powered production vehicles from Volkswagen.

The Golf, the most successful European car, is turning 45. On 29 March 1974, the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg officially started production of what would become its bestseller. Back then, nobody at Volkswagen had any idea that the successor to the legendary Beetle would end up selling more than 35 million units all over the world – and still selling to this day. In purely mathematical terms, a new Golf has been ordered somewhere in the world every 41 seconds, every day, without interruption, since the start of production (SOP) 45 years ago. That is an average of around 780,000 vehicles per year.

The fully-electric Volkswagen ID. R will take on another special challenge in September 2019. Romain Dumas (F) will be back at the wheel of the 500-kW electric sports car for the “China Challenge” on the Tianmen Shan Big Gate Road – a unique stretch of tarmac, featuring 99 corners, which winds its way up Tianmen Mountain, located roughly 1,500 kilometres southwest of Beijing. As no official record exists for the eleven-kilometre mountain road, which is not accessible to public transport, Volkswagen China will run a competition prior to the record attempt, in which participants can set their own virtual time on the Tianmen Shan Big Gate Road. Dumas will then attempt to better the time of the fastest participant under real conditions in September.