Volkswagen named most innovative carmaker of the decade

The 10^th edition of the annual Automotive Innovations Awards saw the Volkswagen Group emerge as one of the big winners and the world’s most innovative company. The awards are presented each year by the Center of Automotive Management (CAM) in cooperation with auditing and consultancy firm PwC.

The VW Group won a total of 5 innovation awards in five additional categories: ‘Most innovative company 2015’, ‘Networked vehicle’, ‘Vehicle concepts’, ‘Conventional drives’ and ‘Safety systems’.

The latest CAM and PwC report commends the Group's innovative strength over the past decade, saying that "1,251 individual innovations, 212 of which were world-firsts, have been developed by Volkswagen in the last 10 years. Highlights among these include the XL1, a platform for new technology; the Bugatti Veyron, the most powerful and fastest production vehicle; Audi's LED matrix headlights; and the first dry dual clutch 7-speed gearbox to go into series production."
At the awards ceremony held yesterday, Professor Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, Board Member for Technical Development at Audi and responsible for cross-brand development coordination within the Volkswagen Group, said: "I share this award with the 600,000 employees of all the 12 brands of the Volkswagen Group in Germany and all our locations around the world. They are creating the mobility of tomorrow. It is their high-level technical expertise, great creativity and the excellent quality of their work that make the Volkswagen Group a leading innovator in the automotive field."

Dr Heinz-Jakob Neußer, Board Member for development of the Volkswagen brand and head of drivetrain development of the Volkswagen Group, said: "The key to a company's success is its innovative strength. We will continue to extend our technological leadership and meet the technological challenges of the future with sustainable products."

Volkswagen Group secured the award for best manufacturer in the ‘Conventional drives’ category. Among other things, the study commended the high proportion of engine innovations with start/stop and recuperation technologies that facilitate to reduce fuel consumption by an average of 14 percent. Moreover, the wide range of efficient engines also finds its way into the Group's various brands very quickly.

The win in the ‘Safety systems’ category came thanks to numerous driver assistance and safety systems. Many innovations are finding their way into the new Audi Q7, including the avoidance assistant, night vision assist (which recognises animals and people) and cross-traffic assist (which protects the driver from colliding with oncoming vehicles when turning across the flow of traffic and at low speed). Special mention is also made of the current Passat's highlights, which include the world's first Emergency Assist system, and the new Trailer Assist, which facilitates manoeuvring with a trailer.

The CAM study also reveals a clear lead of the Volkswagen Group in presenting the most innovations in the ‘Networked vehicle’ category as well. Here the trend has been towards new operating and display concepts, such as the ‘Virtual Cockpit’ in the Audi TT. The control concept vehicle Volkswagen Golf R Touch in which a number of touchscreens replace the conventional controls also came in for praise.

The study also gave a positive rating in the field of ‘Vehicle concepts / body’. In the current Passat the use of lightweight metals in the bodywork and chassis has yielded savings of up to 85 kilograms in weight. Moreover, the high-strength steels and aluminium used in the Audi Q7 have led to weight reductions of up to 325 kilograms. In the ‘Vehicle concepts’ section the Audi TT Sportback concept car – a mixture between a sports car and a 4-door coupé – was singled out for praise.

The Center of Automotive Management (CAM) in Bergisch-Gladbach (Germany) is an independent institute for empirical research on automotive and mobility issues that conducts extensive studies together with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on an annual basis. This year's analysis covered 18 global automotive groups with a total of 53 brands. For the past 10 years, the CAM has been assessing new developments in vehicle technology to identify future trends and innovation profiles of the global automotive companies across a range of different categories.