The Volkswagen brand (www.volkswagenag.com) said it is making good progress towards its target of CO2-neutral production by 2050, having set itself further ambitious targets for 2020 in order to expand the percentage of externally sourced energy from renewable sources at its plants.

Andreas Tostmann, Volkswagen board member for production and logistics, said: “We want to significantly increase the amount of green energy bought in at our plants this year, from 70 to 90%.

“Furthermore, Volkswagen is consistently focusing on natural gas for its own power generation and is switching its power plants in Wolfsburg from coal to gas.”

The external supply of power at the Volkswagen brand’s 16 plants around the world (excluding China) has already been switched to 70% green electricity from renewable sources.

The company has now resolved to increase this figure to 90% inside just one year.

Volkswagen also says it is systematically switching its in-house power-generating plants to gas.

The supply of power for the production operation in Wolfsburg is, for example, currently in the process of being switched (by 2022) to combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants.

They are run in co-generation mode, which means the CO₂ emissions from generating electricity and heat will be reduced by 60% — or around 1.5 million tonnes a year (equivalent to the emissions of around 870,000 cars).

The first of the components required for this project have already been delivered.