Skip to content
Close search
Newsroom
Volkswagen upping use of green electricity at its plants
The Volkswagen plant in Emden.
01/22/20
Wolfsburg
Company
Press Release

Volkswagen upping use of green electricity at its plants

  • Volkswagen brand aims to further increase external supply of plants with electricity from renewable sources
  • Andreas Tostmann, Volkswagen Brand Board of Management Member for Production: “We want to increase use of eco-electricity at our plants this year from 70 to 90 per cent”
  • Sites that produce their own power are switching to natural gas

The Volkswagen brand is making good progress towards its target of CO2-neutral production by 2050. The company has now set itself further ambitious targets for 2020 in order to expand the percentage of externally sourced energy from renewable sources at its plants. Andreas Tostmann, Volkswagen Brand Board of Management Member for Production and Logistics, said: “We want to significantly increase the amount of green energy bought in at our plants this year from 70 to 90 per cent.” Besides that, Volkswagen is consistently focussing on natural gas for its own power generation and is switching its power plants in Wolfsburg from coal to gas.

The external supply of power at the Volkswagen brand’s 16 plants around the world* has already been switched to 70 per cent green electricity from renewable sources. The company has now resolved to increase this figure to 90 per cent inside just one year.

In addition, Volkswagen is systematically switching its in-house power generating plants to gas. The supply of power for the production operation in Wolfsburg is, for example, currently in the process of being switched by 2022 to highly efficient combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants. They are run in cogeneration mode: the CO2 emissions from generating electricity and heat will go down as a result by 60 per cent or around 1.5 million tonnes a year. That is equivalent to the emissions of around 870,000 cars. The first of the components required for doing this were delivered last weekend. With these power plants Volkswagen is making a long-term contribution to the stability of the national grid and power system in Germany.

*Excluding China

Media contacts

Jörn Roggenbuck
Jörn Roggenbuck
Spokesperson Corporate & Business Communications
Tel. +49 (0) 173 3760755
Send Email
Dr. Günther Scherelis
Dr. Günther Scherelis
Spokesperson Environment and Sustainability
Tel. +49 (0) 5361 9-87182
Send Email
All media contacts
Back to top
Topics
Press
Service
Subscription Services

The Volkswagen Newsroom is an open platform and offers comprehensive search options to all users.

If you would like to be kept informed about our press releases you can also subscribe to our media information newsletter.

Sign up
Products as well as Volkswagen AG distributors can be found at: www.volkswagen.de
© Volkswagen 2024

The specified fuel consumption and emission data are determined in accordance with the measurement procedures prescribed by law. 1 January 2022, the WLTP test cycle completely replaced the NEDC test cycle and therefore no NEDC values are available for new type approved vehicles after that date.

This information does not refer to a single vehicle and is not part of the offer but is only intended for comparison between different types of vehicles. Additional equipment and accessories (additional components, tyre formats, etc.) can alter relevant vehicle parameters such as weight, rolling resistance and aerodynamics, affecting the vehicle's fuel consumption, power consumption, CO2 emissions and driving performance values in addition to weather and traffic conditions and individual driving behavior.

Due to more realistic testing conditions, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions measured according to WLTP will in many cases be higher than the values measured according to NEDC. As a result, the taxation of vehicles may change accordingly as of 1 September 2018. For further information on the differences between WLTP and NEDC, please visit www.volkswagen.de/wltp.

Further information on official fuel consumption data and official specific CO2 emissions for new passenger cars can be found in the "Guide to fuel economy, CO2 emissions and power consumption for new passenger car models", which is available free of charge from all sales dealerships and from DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH, Hellmuth-Hirth-Str. 1, D-73760 Ostfildern, Germany and at www.dat.de/co2.