Sustainable production

How eco-friendly is Volkswagen production worldwide?

We are pursuing a long-term strategy on three levels: 1) Substitution of conflict resources, such as cobalt. 2) Second use to extend the battery life cycle. 3) Recycling to recover lithium, cobalt, nickel from battery production. The Volkswagen Group plans to set up a recycling plant in Salzgitter by the end of 2019 to develop innovative processes. However, significant quantities of batteries for recycling are not expected until 2030 onwards. Volkswagen aims to become CO2-neutral by 2050. This applies to the vehicle fleets as well as to the entire company. Decarbonization will become a part of all supplier contracts.

Our new corporate environmental mission statement: "goTOzero" gives us and our partners a clear point of reference. Our efforts to improve environmental protect span the entire product life cycle – from development and manufacturing, to operation and recycling of our vehicles. And this also involves our suppliers. Our mission statement includes four fields of action: climate change, resources, air quality and environmental compliance.

The company's decarbonization programme is based on three pillars: 1) Reduce CO2 effectively and sustainably. 2) Change over energy supplies to renewable energy. 3) Compensate for unavoidable emissions. For example, batteries for the Audi e-tron are manufactured and supplied based on a CO2-neutral approach and the vehicle is assembled in a CO2-neutral plant in Brussels. Volkswagen ID. production in Zwickau will also be CO2-neutral.