The Volkswagen Group is aiming for all rail transport of materials and vehicles inside Germany to be run 100 percent on green electricity by the start of 2021. Volkswagen Group Logistics is switching all Deutsche Bahn carriage of materials and vehicles and this is expected to reduce CO₂ by 26,700 tonnes compared to using the standard German electricity mix.

95 percent of all such transportation is already powered by green electricity. In addition, even more freight is set to go by rail and Volkswagen aims to increase vehicle transportation by train from 53 percent currently to 60 percent by 2022. “With this green electricity offensive, we are making an important contribution towards Group decarbonisation”, says Thomas Zernechel, Head of Volkswagen Group Logistics. For this purpose, Deutsche Bahn feeds in electricity from wind farms and hydropower plants.

He pointed out that, “No car maker in Europe transports more freight by rail using renewable electric power than Volkswagen. In addition to our electric vehicle production having a carbon-neutral footprint, this is a further element in being able, for instance, to hand vehicles from the Volkswagen ID range to customers without any CO₂ baggage.”

When operations are running normally, over 190,000 freight wagons a year are in use for Volkswagen. On average 38 long-distance and 157 local trains a day deliver materials to the plants - in total around 100,000 wagons a year. Meanwhile, around 90,000 wagons take approximately 900,000 vehicles from the plants to 40 interim storage facilities, distribution centres and ports. The brands transported in this way include Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Porsche and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.

Dr Sigrid Evelyn Nikutta, DB Freight Transport Director and Chair of DB Cargo highlighted that, “Each tonne being transported by rail automatically reduces CO₂ emissions by 80 percent. By making this switch, Volkswagen is sending out a strong signal and giving its backing to 100 percent green transportation with no CO₂ emissions. That pleases us as DB Cargo and will please our environment even more.”