Annual Report 2024

Auditor’s report on the Sustainability Report

Assurance report of the independent German public auditor on a limited and reasonable assurance engagement in relation to the group sustainability statement

To Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, Wolfsburg

Assurance conclusion and opinion

We have conducted a limited assurance engagement on the group sustainability statement included in the “Sustainability Report” section of the group management report, taking into account, as set forth in the subsequent paragraph, the reasonable assurance engagement on the disclosures on the EU Taxonomy included in the “EU Taxonomy” section of the group sustainability statement, of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, Wolfsburg, for the fiscal year from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024. The group sustainability statement was prepared to fulfill the requirements of Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD) and Art. 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 as well as Secs. 289b to 289e and Secs. 315b and 315c HGB [“Handelsgesetzbuch”: German Commercial Code] for a group non-financial statement which is combined with the parent company’s nonfinancial statement.

Based on the particular engagement, we have conducted a reasonable assurance engagement on the disclosures on the EU Taxonomy included in the “EU Taxonomy” section of the group sustainability statement. A reasonable assurance engagement on these disclosures fulfills the requirements for a limited assurance engagement and, in accordance with Recital 60 to the CSRD, thereby complies with the requirements of the CSRD relating to assurance of the group sustainability statement.

The prior year’s disclosures marked as unassured are not subject to our assurance engagement.

Based on the procedures performed and the evidence obtained as part of our limited assurance engagement, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the accompanying group sustainability statement, taking into account the disclosures on the EU Taxonomy included in the “EU Taxonomy” section of the group sustainability statement and subject to a reasonable assurance engagement, is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the requirements of the CSRD and Art. 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852, Secs. 289b to 289e and Secs. 315b and 315c HGB for a group nonfinancial statement which is combined with the parent company’s nonfinancial statement and the supplementary criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company. This assurance conclusion includes that nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that:

  • The accompanying group sustainability statement does not comply, in all material respects, with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), including that the process carried out by the Company to identify information to be included in the group sustainability statement (the materiality assessment) is not, in all material respects, in accordance with the description set out in “General information (ESRS 2)” section of the group sustainability statement, or
  • The disclosures on the EU Taxonomy included in the “EU Taxonomy” section of the group sustainability statement do not comply, in all material respects, with Art. 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852.

In our opinion, on the basis of our reasonable assurance engagement, the disclosures on the EU Taxonomy included in the “EU Taxonomy” section of the group sustainability statement were prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the requirements applicable to these disclosures and the supplementary criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company.

We do not express an assurance conclusion on the prior year’s disclosures marked as unassured.

Basis for the assurance conclusion and opinion

We conducted our assurance engagement in accordance with International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).

The procedures in a limited assurance engagement vary in nature and timing from, and are less in extent than for, a reasonable assurance engagement. Consequently, the level of assurance obtained is substantially lower than the assurance that would have been obtained had a reasonable assurance engagement been performed.

Our responsibilities under ISAE 3000 (Revised) are further described in the section “German public auditor’s responsibilities for the assurance engagement on the group sustainability statement.”

We are independent of the Company in accordance with the requirements of European law and German commercial and professional law, and we have fulfilled our other German professional responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. Our audit firm has applied the requirements for a system of quality control as set forth in the IDW Quality Management Standard issued by the Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer [Institute of Public Auditors in Germany] (IDW): Requirements for Quality Management in the Audit Firm (IDW QMS 1 (09.2022)) and International Standard on Quality Management (ISQM) 1 issued by the IAASB. We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our assurance conclusion and opinion.

Responsibilities of the executive directors and the Supervisory Board for the group sustainability statement

The executive directors are responsible for the preparation of the group sustainability statement in accordance with the requirements of the CSRD and the applicable German legal and other European requirements as well as with the supplementary criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company and for designing, implementing and maintaining such internal control that they have considered necessary to enable the preparation of a group sustainability statement in accordance with these requirements that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud (i.e., fraudulent sustainability reporting in the group sustainability statement) or error.

This responsibility of the executive directors includes establishing and maintaining the materiality assessment process, selecting and applying appropriate reporting policies for preparing the group sustainability statement, as well as making assumptions and estimates and ascertaining forward-looking information for individual sustainability-related disclosures.

The Supervisory Board is responsible for overseeing the process for the preparation of the group sustainability statement.

Inherent limitations in preparing the group sustainability statement

The CSRD and the applicable German legal and other European requirements contain wording and terms that are subject to considerable interpretation uncertainties and for which no authoritative, comprehensive interpretations have yet been published. Therefore, the executive directors have disclosed their interpretations of such wording and terms in “EU Taxonomy” section of the group sustainability statement. The executive directors are responsible for the reasonableness of these interpretations. As such wording and terms may be interpreted differently by regulators or courts, the legality of measurements or evaluations of sustainability matters based on these interpretations is uncertain.

These inherent limitations also affect the assurance engagement on the group sustainability statement.

German public auditor’s responsibilities for the assurance engagement on the group sustainability statement

Our objectives are

a) to express a limited assurance conclusion, based on the assurance engagement we have conducted, on whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the accompanying group sustainability statement, taking into account the disclosures on the EU Taxonomy included in the “EU Taxonomy” section of the group sustainability statement has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the CSRD, the applicable German legal and other European requirements and the supplementary criteria presented by the Company’s executive directors, and to issue an assurance report that includes our assurance conclusion on the group sustainability statement, taking into account the disclosures on the EU Taxonomy included in the “EU Taxonomy” section of the group sustainability statement and subject to a reasonable assurance engagement.

b) to express a reasonable assurance opinion, based on the assurance engagement we have conducted, on whether the disclosures on the EU Taxonomy included in the “EU Taxonomy” section of the group sustainability statement are prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the requirements applicable to these disclosures and the supplementary criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company.

As part of an assurance engagement in accordance with ISAE 3000 (Revised), we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional skepticism. We also:

a) For the limited assurance engagement

  • Obtain an understanding of the process used to prepare the group sustainability statement, including the materiality assessment process carried out by the Company to identify the disclosures to be reported in the group sustainability statement.
  • Identify disclosures where a material misstatement due to fraud or error is likely to arise, design and perform procedures to address these disclosures and obtain limited assurance to support the assurance conclusion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations or the override of internal control. In addition, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement in information obtained from sources in the value chain not within the Company’s control (value chain information) is ordinarily higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement in information obtained from sources within the Company’s control, as both the Company’s executive directors and we as practitioners are ordinarily subject to restrictions on direct access to the sources of the value chain information.
  • Consider the forward-looking information, including the appropriateness of the underlying assumptions. There is a substantial unavoidable risk that future events will differ materially from the forward-looking information.

b) For the reasonable assurance engagement

  • perform risk assessment procedures, including obtaining an understanding of the internal controls that are relevant to the assurance engagement on the disclosures on the EU Taxonomy included in the “EU Taxonomy” section of the group sustainability statement in order to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement at the assertion level due to fraud or error, but not for the purpose of expressing an assurance opinion on the effectiveness of these internal controls of the Company. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations or the override of internal control. In addition, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement in information obtained from sources in the value chain not within the Company’s control (value chain information) is ordinarily higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement in information obtained from sources within the Company’s control, as both the Company’s executive directors and we as practitioners are ordinarily subject to restrictions on direct access to the sources of the value chain information.
  • Evaluate the appropriate derivation of the forward-looking disclosures from the significant assumptions and the appropriateness of these assumptions. We do not express a separate assurance opinion either on the forward-looking disclosures nor on the assumptions on which they are based. There is a substantial unavoidable risk that future events will differ materially from the forward-looking disclosures.

Summary of the procedures performed for the limited assurance engagement by the German public auditor

A limited assurance engagement involves the performance of procedures to obtain evidence about the sustainability information. The nature, timing and extent of the selected procedures are subject to our professional judgment.

In performing our limited assurance engagement, we:

  • Gained an understanding of the structure of the sustainability organization and stakeholder engagement
  • Obtained an understanding of the process used to prepare the subject matter, including the materiality assessment process carried out by the Company to identify the disclosures to be reported, and about the internal controls relating to this process.
  • Evaluated the suitability of the criteria as a whole presented by the executive directors in the group sustainability statement.
  • Inquired of the executive directors and relevant management personnel involved in the preparation of the group sustainability statement about the preparation process, including the materiality assessment process carried out by the Company to identify the disclosures to be reported in the group sustainability statement, and about the internal controls relating to this process.
  • Inquired of the executive directors and relevant management personnel responsible for data capture and consolidation as well as the preparation of the subject matter, to evaluate the reporting system, the data capture and compilation methods as well as internal controls to the extent relevant for the assurance of the disclosures in the subject matter.
  • Evaluated the reporting policies used by the executive directors to prepare the group sustainability statement.
  • Evaluated the reasonableness of the estimates and related information provided by the executive directors. If, in accordance with the ESRS, the executive directors estimate the value chain information to be reported for a case in which the executive directors are unable to obtain the information from the value chain despite making reasonable efforts, our assurance engagement is limited to evaluating whether the executive directors have undertaken these estimates in accordance with the ESRS and assessing the reasonableness of these estimates, but does not include identifying information in the value chain that the executive directors were unable to obtain.
  • Inspected relevant documentation on the systems and processes for the collection, aggregation and validation of data in the relevant areas during the reporting period.
  • Performed selective testing and obtained evidence relating to the collection and reporting of selected disclosures in the subject matter.
  • Considered the implementation of key management requirements, processes and data collection requirements through site visits to selected locations of Volkswagen AG.
  • Performed analytical procedures and made inquiries in relation to selected information in the group sustainability statement.
  • Compared selected disclosures with the corresponding disclosures in the group management report of Volkswagen AG, Wolfsburg.
  • Considered the presentation of the information in the group sustainability statement.
  • Considered the process for identifying taxonomy-eligible and taxonomy-aligned economic activities and the corresponding disclosures in the group sustainability statement.
  • Considered the existence of the CO2 compensation certificates but not their effectiveness.

Restriction of use

We draw attention to the fact that the assurance engagement was conducted for the Company’s purposes and that the assurance report is intended solely to inform the Company about the result of the assurance engagement. As a result, it may not be suitable for another purpose than the aforementioned. Accordingly, the assurance report is not intended to be used by third parties for making (financial) decisions based on it. Our responsibility is to the Company alone. We do not accept any responsibility to third parties. Our assurance conclusion is not modified in this respect.

General Engagement Terms and Liability

The “General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüferinnen, Wirtschaftsprüfer and Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften [German Public Auditors and Public Audit Firms]” dated 1 January 2024, which are attached to this report, are applicable to this engagement and also govern our relations with third parties in the context of this engagement (ey-idw-aab-de-2024.pdf).

In addition, please refer to the liability provisions contained there in no. 9 and to the exclusion of liability towards third parties. We accept no responsibility, liability or other obligations towards third parties unless we have concluded a written agreement to the contrary with the respective third party or liability cannot effectively be precluded.

We make express reference to the fact that we will not update the assurance report to reflect events or circumstances arising after it was issued, unless required to do so by law. It is the sole responsibility of anyone taking note of the summarized result of our work contained in this report to decide whether and in what way this result is useful or suitable for their purposes and to supplement, verify or update it by means of their own review procedures.

Hanover, 7 March 2025

EY GmbH & Co. KG
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

Matischiok
Wirtschaftsprüfer
[German Public Auditor] 

Hinderer
Wirtschaftsprüfer
[German Public Auditor]

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