VOLKSWAGEN AG
The Volkswagen Group
The Volkswagen Group with its headquarters in Wolfsburg is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. The group comprises 12 brands from seven European countries: Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN.
Each brand has its own character and operates as an independent entity on the market. The product spectrum ranges from motorcycles to low-consumption small cars and luxury vehicles. In the commercial vehicle sector, the products include ranges from pick-ups, buses and heavy trucks. The Group operates 119 (May 26, 2015) production plants in 20 European countries and a further 11 countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa. Every weekday, 592,586 employees worldwide produce nearly 41,000 vehicles, and work in vehicle-related services or other fields of business. The Volkswagen Group sells its vehicles in 153 countries.
Group Research has its headquarters in Wolfsburg and researches for all Group brands. International trendscouting and technology scouting form part of our strategic orientation and we also operate from research sites in the US, Japanese and Chinese markets.
The divisions:
Materials and manufacturing methods
Our materials expertise enables us to bring a positive influence to bear on important product characteristics such as weight, quality, safety, new functions and costs, thereby differentiating ourselves from our competitors. In doing so, we focus on components and modules that are manufactured at Volkswagen AG's own vehicle and component production facilities. At the same time, we analyse and evaluate current trends in materials development in order to shape key technologies and make technological breakthroughs possible. One important main aspect of research concerns working out conceptual and materials solutions for cost-effective lightweight construction for high-volume series production conditions in order to achieve comprehensive CO2 reductions in the manufacture and operation of future vehicles. In addition we focus our activities on the optimization of materials and interfaces for advanced drive train concepts and new vehicle functions.
Technology development for tool and press-shop
The division is - among other things - responsible for new and innovative development of technology in the field of the tool- and pressshop. One important aspect is the optimization of the part production process e.g. the hot forming or cold forming process including all manufacturing steps from the raw blank to the part.
Therefore also the material assessment of new material regarding their formability and processability falls into our field of responsibility. In addition we focus on sensors or actuators for inline-process control to obtain reliable and stable productions.
