Water

Water is a valuable resource. We combine sustainable water management with a number of aspects: our aims include reducing freshwater consumption, making water use more efficient and strengthening groundwater protection.

Material impacts and their interaction with strategy and business model

Interaction with strategy and business model

The impact of water use identified in the double materiality assessment is assessed in the Group’s business model, strategy and value chain. At an overarching level, the sustainable use of resources, including water, is anchored in the Group sustainability strategy regenerate+. Based on this, increasing resource efficiency is also one of the action areas in the Volkswagen Group’s environmental mission statement goTOzero. The focus here is on consistently encouraging reuse and recycling approaches along the entire value chain.

The closed-loop circulation of process water and the associated reduction in the use of fresh water are anchored in the Zero Impact Factory strategic vision for the Volkswagen Group’s own production sites. Our voluntary commitment to achieving specific targets (see the “Targets: Water” section) will help mitigate the identified impact of water use.

The Code of Conduct for Business Partners encourages business partners to take appropriate action to ensure responsible use of water. Business partners acknowledging corresponding sustainability requirements and passing them on to direct business partners should enable continuous application of the requirements in the deeper tiers of the supply chain as well.

Policy: Water

Policy for sustainable water management

Water management in the Volkswagen Group is anchored in a dedicated policy. One of the focal points of the approach is conservation of water as a resource. In line with the Group sustainability strategy regenerate+, the Volkswagen Group is working to continually reduce the need for primary raw materials, including water.

Resource conservation is also thematically anchored in the environmental mission statement goTOzero. With regard to water, this involves improving usage efficiency and promoting reuse approaches. Another action area in the mission statement is protecting ecosystems, with the associated reduction of harmful emissions into water bodies (see the “Pollution” chapter).

Water is also a focal point of our Group-wide Zero Impact Factory strategic vision. Our production sites should be designed in such a way that their water use has the least possible negative impact on local water resources. This specifically involves actions such as reducing water withdrawal, increasing reuse of water, using water responsibly (particularly in areas with water stress), minimizing the input of water-polluting substances and preventing deterioration of the ecological and chemical quality of receiving water bodies.

The Code of Conduct for Business Partners requires suppliers to take appropriate actions to minimize water consumption at their sites. These actions should ensure that they do not cause any water pollution that could significantly impair the natural basis for drinking water bodies.

In the downstream supply chain, the Volkswagen Group is unable to regulate relevant water consumption by means of its own levers.

Water management at the company

Water is needed for numerous reasons at the production sites, such as for painting, cooling and sanitary purposes. The use of freshwater is necessary in many areas; the Volkswagen Group (excluding the TRATON GROUP) obtains around three-quarters of its requirements from external suppliers such as municipal water boards. Around a quarter of water withdrawal is covered through the use of our own wells, rainwater and abstraction from surface water bodies. Production sites are part of the local water cycles and affect the water resources available through water withdrawal, treatment and wastewater discharges.

In this respect, internal water treatment is becoming increasingly important. A growing number of sites are treating their wastewater so as to reuse it in production processes, in cooling towers, in sanitary facilities or for irrigation purposes, thereby reducing their need for water withdrawal. A closed loop and recycling of cooling or process water reduces freshwater consumption and wastewater generation and therefore contributes to responsible use of water as a resource. In this context, the Volkswagen Group strives to achieve the highest possible technical treatment level and does not release any untreated wastewater into receiving waters. Nearly all sites have pretreatment systems that remove harmful substances from wastewater (for more information, see the “Actions and resources: Pollution” section in the “Pollution” chapter). If wastewater is not treated on site, it is treated in an external wastewater treatment plant or, in individual cases, disposed of as waste.

Water withdrawal in water risk areas

A proportion of water withdrawal by the Volkswagen Group takes place at sites in areas with water stress. Responsible use of water is particularly important in such regions to avoid further shortages. This is why the Volkswagen Group places particular emphasis on reducing water withdrawal and making water use more efficient in areas with water stress (see the heading “Group-wide reduction in water withdrawal”).

When comparing the Group’s own operations with the supply chain, the largest share of water withdrawal occurs within the supply chain, in particular as a result of the extraction and processing of raw materials. The Code of Conduct for Business Partners requires suppliers to take appropriate action to ensure responsible use of water, especially in regions where water is scarce.

Business partners commit to passing on the sustainability requirements to relevant direct suppliers and to promoting their implementation as far as possible and reasonable in order to support their application along the supply chain.

Targets: Water

Overarching targets

Overarching water targets are set based on the targets outlined above (see the “Overarching targets and metrics” section in the “Introduction to Environmental Management” chapter). In the past fiscal year, we significantly exceeded our original targets of reducing production-related environmental impacts at all our sites that produce passenger cars and light commercial vehicles by 45% compared with 2010. The UEP metric also includes water withdrawal per vehicle. Under the Impact Points method, future assessments of the impact of water withdrawal will take account of local site conditions. The Volkswagen Group also addresses the topic of water in its Site Checklist, which sets out specific requirements for improving water management at production sites within the action area of water.

Group-wide reduction in water withdrawal

The Volkswagen Group has set specific targets for water withdrawal at its production sites. These were defined together with the brands against a backdrop of rising water stress in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate scenarios and taking the market situation into account. Among other things, they are designed to help reduce the risk of future supply bottlenecks. Water withdrawal at the Volkswagen Group’s production sites (with the exception of the TRATON GROUP and Everllence) is to be reduced by 30% on average across the Group by 2035 compared with 2018 (baseline value: 45.6 million m³). At relevant production sites in areas with moderate to extreme water stress (known as “hot spot” locations), water withdrawal is set to be reduced by as much as 40% (baseline value: 28.1 million m³). The Verisk Maplecroft database is used to identify locations with water stress and hot spot locations (see section “Metrics: Water”). Data on water withdrawal at the production sites is collected in accordance with the internal 98000 standard and reflects the requirements of the ESRS. With these voluntary targets, the Volkswagen Group is contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals SDG 6.4 (Clean water and sanitation), SDG 12.2 (Responsible consumption and production) and SDG 13 (Climate action), among other things.

In the reporting year 2025, water withdrawal across the Group (excluding the TRATON GROUP and Everllence) amounted to 29.7 (32.5) million m³, corresponding to a reduction of 15.9 (13.1) million m³ compared to the base year 2018. As such, the target set for 2035 has already been exceeded by 15.2%. In addition to the economies of scale, VW Kraftwerk GmbH’s fuel switch from coal to gas at the Wolfsburg site accounts for a material share of the target achievement. As a consequence of the fuel switch, the quantity of waste heat fell, and with it cooling water requirements, reducing VW Kraftwerk GmbH’s water withdrawal by nearly 2 (2) million m³ since 2018.

For hot spot sites, water withdrawal in the reporting year 2025 amounted to 15.4 (17.8) million m³, corresponding to a reduction of 12.7 (10.3) million m³ compared to the base year 2018. As such, the target set for 2035 has already been exceeded by 13.2%.

Actions and resources: Water

Actions in the value chain

As described in the “Policy: Water” section, the Code of Conduct for Business Partners requires business partners to take appropriate action to ensure that water withdrawal is continually minimized. A particular focus lies on improvements in regions with water scarcity or water stress. Appropriate actions may include in particular the effective reduction of water withdrawal, reuse and recycling, and responsible and effective treatment of wastewater to protect the environment and improve water quality overall. Suppliers should ensure that people affected by their business activities have secure access to affordable water in sufficient quantities for personal use. On request, Volkswagen Group suppliers are additionally required to provide information on their total freshwater consumption at product level.

The following example can be cited as an illustrative action:

Since 2021, the Volkswagen Group has been a member of the Responsible Lithium Partnership in Chile, an initiative coordinated by the international cooperation and development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and financed by companies from the automotive industry, among others. The aim of the initiative is to promote more responsible resource use and more sustainable lithium production in Chile’s Salar de Atacama region through dialogue between stakeholders from different sectors. The region is one of the most important mining areas for lithium and one of the driest regions on earth. One working group in the Responsible Lithium Partnership focuses in particular on water and the impacts of brine and water use.

In the reporting year, the project was transferred to an independent and locally managed structure. Following the last round of discussions organized by GIZ in Chile in January 2025, a closing event for the project took place in Berlin. In several roundtable discussions, panelists from Chile and Germany, from the affected communities, and from automotive companies, academia and NGOs highlighted the challenges around lithium sourcing and approaches to strengthening corporate due diligence. The event highlighted the importance of the project in implementing due diligence in the lithium supply chain. Continuing it as a local project also ensures the ongoing implementation of measures already initiated from the action plan to reduce water consumption, including geological and hydrological mapping, campaigns on water scarcity, and graywater recycling.

As a founding member of a local partnership project in Indonesia, the Volkswagen Group is committed to improving environmental and social standards in the nickel sector. Among other things, the project aims to protect biodiversity and improve water quality in mining regions in Halmahera. Working in collaboration with local stakeholders, non-governmental organizations and businesses, the aim is to develop and implement actions specifically to address ESG risks.

A preliminary study identified water-related negative impacts as material. The analysis covered both the availability and quality of water in the affected regions. The resulting actions include monitoring systems for water quality.

Actions at the production sites

Continuous optimization of water-saving processes is a goal at all of the Volkswagen Group’s production sites. Responsible use of water as a resource is particularly relevant in areas at water risk. Approximately 43.5 (42.3)% (around 13.0 (14.5) million m³) of Group-wide water withdrawal (excluding the TRATON GROUP) is attributable to sites in areas of high or extreme water stress. However, closed-loop circulation or recirculation of cooling and process water means that water withdrawal and the quantity of wastewater can be reduced. The San José Chiapa/Mexico site, which can be considered a wastewater-free site due to closed-loop circulation, provides a good example of this. Various actions have been taken in recent years to reduce water withdrawal at our site in Kariega in South Africa, which is a high water-stress area. For instance, the cooling towers for the engine production facilities are supplied with rainwater and a recycling system for production wastewater was commissioned in 2023 and is able to save up to 47,000 m³ of freshwater each year when working at full capacity. Other sites are also utilizing their treated wastewater, for example in production processes, in cooling towers, for toilet flushing, or for irrigation purposes. A total of approximately 4.0 (3.9) million m³ of water was reused at the Group’s production sites in 2025. Significant portions of this were attributable to the sites in Ingolstadt/Germany (0.7 million m³) and Puebla/Mexico (0.7 million m³). The two sites mainly use a combination of ultra filtration and reverse osmosis in their wastewater recycling. The Qingdao site in China, which is also located in a region heavily affected by water stress, was able to increase its volume of reused water to 0.3 million m³ in 2025 by adding a storage tank with a capacity of 1,000 m³.

Metrics: Water

Measurement methodologies

Internal Group standard 98000 defines how water-related metrics are expected to be collected uniformly at all sites worldwide. If flow volumes are measured, this is usually done continuously using analog or digital flow measurement devices.

Hot spot sites

The Volkswagen Group has defined especially ambitious targets for hot spot sites related to water (see section “Targets: Water”). A total of 25 production sites are currently considered to be hot spot sites. To identify them, all production sites that Verisk Maplecroft found to be in the categories of medium, high or extremely high water stress in the base year 2018 were included. In addition, they were prioritized according to water withdrawal quantities in the base year. Sites that were in the upper median in the Group’s internal comparison were taken into account. TRATON GROUP and Everllence sites were excluded because they are outside the scope of the target.

Sites in water risk areas

The Volkswagen Group uses the water stress index from the Verisk Maplecroft database to define areas at water risk. Sites with high or extreme water stress are considered here.

Maplecroft identifies areas as affected by high water stress when the ratio of water withdrawal to water availability is greater than 40%, following prevalent standard scientific definition. This percentage corresponds to a value of 5 in Maplecroft’s non-linear scaling. Extreme water stress (80% or greater) is shown on the scale from a value of 2.5 or lower. To determine areas at water risk, the same scale range is used as when using the World Resources Institute Aqueduct database (see ESRS Annex II, areas with water risks of 40% −100% should be considered), although Aqueduct also covers other physical and regulatory risks (for example water quality) as well as reputational risks, in addition to water stress. These are not currently factored into the analysis using Verisk Maplecroft. Nevertheless, other aspects of water are also being addressed by the Volkswagen Group, such as implicitly improving freshwater quality by reducing the discharge of pollutants into water bodies (see the Impact Points targets in the “Overarching targets and metrics” section in the “Introduction to Environmental Management” chapter).

Water consumption

Water consumption is generally calculated as the difference between water withdrawal and volume of wastewater. Consequently, water consumption describes the water that is no longer available for further use, for ecosystems or for local communities. For the Volkswagen Group, water consumption results mainly from evaporation losses that arise during the production processes. The metrics of water withdrawal and volume of wastewater that are used to determine water consumption are described in the following.

Water withdrawals

Water is withdrawn to supply the Volkswagen Group’s production sites with water. This includes volumes of water that are either procured from third parties or extracted from our own sources.

Externally procured water is the volume of water obtained from public or private water suppliers and other non-Volkswagen Group organizations. This may be high-quality drinking water or water of a lower quality that is used as process water. Externally procured wastewater is water that is supplied by an external water supplier for use at the site and that has already been used. As regards externally procured water, reports on water quality are prepared in accordance with local or national requirements. The quantity of externally procured water at the sites is usually recorded on the basis of billing.

Water extracted from own sources refers to the volume of water pumped and collected by the site. This includes utilized precipitation, surface water and groundwater:

• Precipitation refers to water in the form of rain, snow or hail, for example, that falls on the grounds of the site and is used in its water supply. The annual volume of precipitation is usually collected by official sources, such as KOSTRA-DWD, or by the site’s own weather stations.
• Surface water refers to the water taken from open bodies of water (lakes, rivers, oceans) and supplied to the site for use. Use for once-through cooling with subsequent direct recirculation is not considered to be water withdrawal.
• Groundwater refers to the water taken from underground aquifers and supplied to the site for use. Groundwater withdrawn solely for groundwater treatment or remediation is not considered to be water withdrawal.

The scope and frequency of the analysis of water extracted from the Group’s own sources are based on withdrawal approvals or national regulations, such as the German Drinking Water Regulation (TrinkwV). However, analysis does take place at least once a year.

Around 83% of the volume of water withdrawals at Volkswagen Group sites (excluding the TRATON GROUP) is measured directly, while around 16% is calculated. Approximately 1% of this volume is determined through estimates. This information on data collection methods is based on information provided by the sites and is not validated externally.

Volume of wastewater

The volume of wastewater is the amount of water that leaves the site after use or treatment. A distinction is made between direct and indirect discharge. Direct discharge is taken to mean the discharge of treated wastewater directly into a receiving body of water, while indirect discharge refers to the discharge of wastewater into a sewer system or wastewater treatment plant or its transportation by tanker to a third-party treatment plant.

Approximately 46% of the volume of wastewater in the Volkswagen Group (excluding the TRATON GROUP) is determined by measurement, approximately 29% by calculation and approximately 24% by estimates. This information on data collection methods is based on information provided by the sites and is not validated externally.

Water intensity

Water intensity is calculated based on total water consumption and sales revenue, with the latter taken from the consolidated financial statements. The water intensity metric is reported excluding companies with operational control.

Reuse of water

The reuse of water metric covers water that is reused and recycled. Reuse means water used again at the site without being treated, whereas recycling refers to water that is used again following prior on-site treatment. Reuse of water can help to reduce the amount of freshwater needed, which is of particular relevance in areas experiencing high water stress or water scarcity. Reuse of water also includes utilized precipitation and wastewater produced by other organizations and supplied to the site for use (see the heading “Water withdrawals”). Reuse of water solely comprises actions that are cross-plant or cross-process. Water that is reused in the same process or in the same plant (with or without prior treatment) and only leads to an increase in its service life is not included. This encompasses, for example, closed-loop circulation in car washes and recirculated water for the flushing process in the paint shop.

Approximately 65% of the reused water volume within the Volkswagen Group (excluding the TRATON GROUP) is directly recorded through measurement, approximately 29% is calculated and approximately 6% is determined using estimates (for example, recycled water used in sanitary facilities). This information on data collection methods is based on information provided by the sites and is not validated externally.