Frankfurt 2015: Volkswagen CEO Commits To Technological Reinvention

A new era is dawning for Volkswagen, a sentiment shared by CEO Dr. Martin Winterkorn, while announcing a string of commitments to technologies and new projects that look to the future.

Winterkorn said: “We are in the process of reinventing Europe's largest automaker, laying the technological, economic and structural foundations. "No commitment to electro-mobility can be any clearer than that. Our Group already has the largest connected vehicle fleet on the road. By 2020 we will have transformed all of our new cars into smartphones on wheels."

The Group Chairman also announced 20 more electric cars and plug-in hybrids will be introduced into the line-up by that same year. Winterkorn also touched on the triumphs of the Porshce Mission E and Audi e-tron quattro concept, describing them as “nothing less than a quantum leap for our industry."

He also called out to policymakers to implement legislation that would fast-track the adoption and innovation pace of forward-looking automotive technologies, “We have the right cars. Now what is needed is the right framework for this key technology to really catch on.”

One of the largest future fields in the automotive world, digitization, is a subject that Volkswagen is familiar with, which leads to Winterkorn boldly saying that by the end of the decade they would have transformed all their cars to “smartphones on wheels,” and in so doing would pave the way for “one of the most fascinating technologies of our time: automated driving.

"At Volkswagen there is a sense that a new era is dawning. With ‘Future Tracks' we were the first to make the transformation in the auto industry the number one topic – and that is paying off now." Turning his attention to new competitors from the IT industry, he made clear that "Volkswagen is staying in the driver's seat: mobility in all shapes and sizes remains our unique domain and passion in the digital era, too."