Volkswagen Group honors best suppliers

• Volkswagen presents Group Award 2015 to 26 international suppliers for special innovative capabilities and very high reliability
• Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn: “New innovation partnership for the digitalization of the automobile”
• Garcia Sanz: “Together, we will develop new business areas and the necessary prospects for growth.”

Yesterday in Neuburg near Ingolstadt, the Volkswagen Group presented the Volkswagen Group Award 2015 to its best suppliers. Before an audience of 260 guests from 26 countries, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, and Dr. Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz, Member of the Board of Management responsible for Procurement, handed the awards over to the Group’s 26 best suppliers this year.

“To make really good cars, you need really good partners – and we certainly have them,” said Winterkorn at the award ceremony. Looking to the future, he added: “Over the next few years, almost every aspect of the automobile industry will change. In the age of digitalization, we need to maintain our existing strengths and to develop new strengths. We will be working on this with our suppliers in a major new innovation partnership.”

This year is the 13th time that the Volkswagen Group has honored the entrepreneurial performance of its best suppliers with the Volkswagen Group Award. The award-winners are distinguished by their innovative power, product quality, development competence, sustainability and professional project management.

Garcia Sanz praised the partner companies: “On behalf of the Volkswagen Group, I would like to thank you for your dedication and your achievements. We can only shape the mobility of the future and continue our success with strong suppliers. Together, we have reached historic milestones with the Group. This applies to the implementation of our module strategy and to the delivery of 10 million vehicles to our customers for the first time. Electro-mobility and the continuing digitalization of our industry are key building bricks in our joint success. Together with you, we will actively develop new business areas and growth prospects.”

Continuing digitalization, changed business models, electro-mobility and the transformation of customers’ wishes are key topics of the “Future Tracks” program launched by the Volkswagen Group last year in order to prepare for the challenges facing the automobile industry.

“Volkswagen FAST – Future Automotive Supply Tracks”, a key element in “Future Tracks”, represents the future requirements for cooperation between suppliers and the Volkswagen Group. The objective is to synchronize the global strategies of the Group and suppliers at an early stage and to generate innovations fast.
FAST is therefore a major initiative for safeguarding the future of the Volkswagen Group and the automobile industry in technological and economic terms.

The winners of the Volkswagen Group Award 2015 are: