Future and Mobility

With its future and mobility research, the Volkswagen Group helps to shape tomorrow’s world. Social, technological, economic, ecological and political trends also form the basis for the innovative vehicle, function and mobility concepts of the future. Volkswagen’s extensive activities present people with attractive and innovative options for individual mobility in the future.

The only constant is change. Globalization, urbanization, flexibility and individualization have a formative influence on future developments in industry and society. Technologies are being networked to become intelligent, flexible and intuitive.

Volkswagen Group Research integrates these trends in revolutionary automobile concepts, focusing on powertrain, body, operation and safety. Future Research concentrates on the early recognition of new technology and new social trends and on technology road mapping. Work on the early recognition of social trends researches into and decodes the behavior patterns of future customers in society of the future. Work on the early recognition of new technology systematically monitors new technology approaches and lays the foundation for the early recognition of competition-relevant new technologies. Finally, technology road mapping coordinates the timing and content of research and development projects, focusing them on vehicle projects and the needs of customers on the different markets. 



Almost all over the world, cars and trucks are the backbone of people movements and freight traffic. Mobility research cannot consider cars and trucks in isolation; vehicles are simultaneously a driver and dependent of the traffic and mobility system. Reliable knowledge about developments in the mobility and transport system are therefore indispensable for Volkswagen for the future design of the (Auto)Mobility division. In 2006, for example, Volkswagen Mobility Research and the technical and scientific working group acatech conducted an intensive investigation into traffic development in Germany until 2020 and drew up possible solutions. A key finding of the study is that there will be a significant increase in traffic on trunk roads, particularly in urban conurbations. The infrastructure in many regions, on the other hand, is aging and cannot keep pace. As a consequence, traffic is denser and more complex. Road works will increasingly become the prime cause of traffic jams.
What can be done? The key lies in the interaction of intelligent roads, innovative traffic management and further developed vehicle technology on an intact infrastructure.

Special note

This topic currently forms part of Volkswagen Group Research activities to study feasibility and does not constitute part of series equipment, nor are there currently any plans for series use.