Investment and financial planning
In order to inspire our customers worldwide with a strong product portfolio and an attractive range of services throughout the entire customer and product life cycle, we are pushing Volkswagen’s transformation into a Global Automotive Tech Driver as part of the implementation of our Group strategy. In this context, we wish to unleash our full business potential by means of competitive technologies and by efficiently leveraging synergies within the Group.
Under our current planning for 2026, most of the capex (investments in property, plant and equipment, investment property and intangible assets, excluding capitalized development costs) is earmarked for the production of electric vehicles and the associated battery technologies, electric toolkits and platforms as key components of the transformation taking place in the mobility industry.
Particularly against the backdrop of the delayed ramp-up of e-mobility and in view of evolving market conditions, we continue to keep the appeal of our conventional vehicles, toolkits and platforms firmly in our sights. This approach is also reflected in the strategic alignment of our investment planning, which continues to include investments in our portfolio of vehicles with conventional drive systems. We are aiming to achieve a balance between vehicles with all-electric, hybrid and conventional drivetrains to cater to the needs of our various customer groups.
The focus of our capex further extends to the digitalization of our products and sites, measures to cut carbon emissions and promote sustainable production processes, and the expansion of our presence in markets such as North America (with the Scout brand) and China, where we will also step up our activities at a local level.
In addition to capex, our investing activities also encompass additions to capitalized development costs. Like capex, these costs relate, among other things, to upfront expenditures for measures to update and electrify the model range, as well as for technologies of the future. They also include expenditure for the software architectures of the future, with a synergistic approach for use throughout the Group.
It is with this investment in our facilities and models, in the development of electrified drives and platforms, and in digitalization that we are laying the foundation for profitable, sustainable growth at Volkswagen with a view to safeguarding our future viability. The investment also includes commitments arising from decisions taken in previous fiscal years. We assume that the investment ratio in the Automotive Division will lie between 11% and 12% in 2026.
We aim to finance the investments in our Automotive Division from our own capital resources and expect cash flows from operating activities to exceed the Automotive Division’s investment requirements. We expect net cash flow for 2026 to be between €3 billion and €6 billion. This particularly includes cash outflows for investments for the future. Net liquidity in the Automotive Division in 2026 is expected to be between €32 billion and €34 billion.
These plans are based on the Volkswagen Group’s current structures.
Our equity-accounted joint ventures in China are not included in the figures above. For 2026, these joint ventures plan to invest in e-mobility, further optimization of the model portfolio, the development of new mobility solutions and digitalization (especially in software). The corresponding capex will probably exceed the level recorded in 2025 and be financed from the companies’ own funds.
In the Financial Services Division, we are planning higher investment in 2026 than in the previous year. We expect the development of lease assets and of receivables from leasing, customer and dealer financing to lead to funds tied up in working capital, of which around half will be financed from gross cash flow. As is common in the sector, the remaining funding requirements will be met primarily through unsecured bonds on the money and capital markets, the issuing of asset-backed securities, customer deposits from the direct banking business, and through the use of international credit lines.