The Volkswagen Group has just over 670 thousand employees and many of them are engineers: inside for mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science etc. Diversity is one of seven corporate principles and an integral part of the group-wide ESG strategy (sustainability strategy). We use the Diversity Index to measure and control the proportion of women in management and internationality in top management throughout the Group.

First of all, congratulations on your new job at the VW Group!

1. What is your exact job there and what is your function?

Since April, I have been in charge of organisational development and transformation in the Volkswagen Group. In my role, I support the implementation of our transformation towards e-mobility and digitalisation. This involves a wide range of projects: introducing new organisational and collaboration models, implementing new business processes, reducing organisational complexity, digitising business models or holistic changes in corporate units.

2 When I think of the VW Group, I always immediately think of Porsche (my favourite brand, remark Daniel Löhr). But most people associate the Porsche brand with "expensive" and high fuel (energy) consumption. Isn't that a contradiction in terms nowadays, when people talk about sustainability and the energy turnaround every day?

Volkswagen is clearly committed to e-mobility and is planning an ambitious ramp-up across all Group brands. By 2030, we as a group will increase our purely electric share of deliveries in Europe to more than 70 per cent, and at Porsche the 80 per cent mark will even be reached worldwide in 2030. The electric Taycan is already available and it is simply great. Porsche is also pioneering the development of e-fuels within the Group: In a pilot plant in Chile, we are working with partners to show how production can work on an industrial scale. But the direction of travel is clearly towards e-mobility. Volkswagen AG is also making a significant contribution to the development of the charging infrastructure. Overall, we want to achieve around 18,000 fast charging points in Europe and more than 40,000 worldwide by 2025.

3. How many employees work for the VW Group and how many of them are engineers?

The Volkswagen Group has just over 670 thousand employees. I don't know the exact numbers of engineers, but I can tell you that a lot of the people I've been dealing with since I started in April have a technical education and many of them are engineers: inside for mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, etc.

4. Is the proportion of women (engineers) at VW already high enough?

Diversity is one of seven corporate principles and an integral part of the group-wide ESG strategy (sustainability strategy). Like many companies, especially in technology-related industries, we naturally want to further expand diversity in our workforce, from trainees to top management. To this end, we have a variety of programmes, including a diversity index. This measures and controls the proportion of women in management and internationality in top management across the Group.

5. You have continued to serve as a patron of Engineers' Day, which honours us and makes us proud. Is the VW Group already aware of Engineers' Day or World Engineering Day?

As an engineer myself, I strongly believe that technology and education are very powerful tools to change people's lives. The digital age represents a historic opportunity for governments, institutions and businesses of all sizes to improve the way they work, create value and serve their customers and citizens. But this requires well-trained engineers who can translate ideas into solutions and implement them responsibly and in the interest of many.

6. How would you like to continue supporting Engineers' Day?

I have participated in Engineers' Day every year so far. My main concern is to get more women and girls interested in this career. I want to serve as a role model as best I can, so that hopefully more will realise how responsible, inspiring and effective the engineering professions are. And I am looking forward to becoming active in this sense in Germany, the "land of poets and thinkers", but certainly also the land of engineers.

Thank you very much Yvonne for the insight into your new world and for your commitment to engineers.

More information about the VW Group https://www.volkswagen-group.com/de/unternehmen-15765