I am head of global group communications. Yesterday, many of you already joined us for our Power Day. Today, our CEO, Herbert Diess, will tell you how battery and charging fit into the overall picture. Our CFO, Frank Witter, will present last year's annual earnings, and our new CFO, Arno Antlitz, will present his CFO agenda for the coming years. Our executives will hold their presentations in English, and our Q&A later on will be in German. With that, let me hand over to Herbert Diess. Thank you, Nicole. Ladies and gentlemen, 2020 was a unprecedented year. A year in which Volkswagen mastered one of the biggest challenges in our history. In the pandemic, we managed supply chains and production worldwide, made sure our employees are safe, and secured liquidity. At the same time, Volkswagen accelerated its transition into a climate neutral, software-driven mobility group. I would like to thank our 670,000 employees. They have taken us through this crisis. Today, I will be sharing the stage with both our current and our new CFO. Frank Witter has been CFO since 2015. He will pass on the baton to Arno Antlitz, who joins from Audi in April. Ladies and gentlemen, Volkswagen has proven to be robust and powerful in 2020. Global passenger car sales fell to 68 million units last year. In total, the Volkswagen Group delivered around 15% fewer cars than in 2019. At the same time, we could increase our global market share slightly to 13%. In China, we have strengthened our partnerships with a focus on electrification, and for the first time, we acquired majority shareholdings in two joint ventures, both dedicated to e-mobility. Audi and FAW plan the production of premium e-cars in Changchun. In Anhui Electric Joint Venture, Volkswagen increased its share to 75%. Audi reached a sales record with a + 5.4%. Porsche's deliveries grew by 3%. An important model to strengthen Volkswagen's premium appeal in China is the new Viloran. It is a comfortable and luxury van with seven seats, providing first class travel. In South America, our teams are delivering an impressive turnaround story. In 2020, we raised our market share to a new record of over 14%. For the first time in many years, we expect the region to be profitable in 2021. With the Nivus, Volkswagen, for the first time, will sell a car in Europe that was developed in Latin America. In North America, we now have the right product line-up and substance tailored to the taste of our customers in the region. The upcoming Taos is the fifth new SUV in only four years' time. Our portfolio will soon consist of attractive SUVs models only. A rebirth of our Volkswagen brand, which will be propelled by our electric push with the ID.4 production starting in Chattanooga and the homecoming of the iconic ID. Buzz. In Western Europe, we could grow our share of electrified vehicles from 1.9% in 2019 to 10.5% in 2020. Škoda showed strong momentum. The brand was the main driver of our market share growth in Europe. For this year, we expect to overcome the COVID crisis, with demand picking up in the second half. In 2020, we also set the future course by strengthening the group's management board. The new board is set to unleash value. We will accelerate our transformation journey in 2021 and beyond. Arno Antlitz will ensure that we generate the funds to finance the transformation and that we allocate our resources towards future technologies. Building a strategic supply chain management, this will leverage global synergies across brands and reduce material costs. Murat Aksel joined the board. Thomas Schmall joined the board as a member in charge of technology in January. He has taken the lead on battery and charging, which is becoming a core business for the group. Five years ago, we have initiated Volkswagen Group's transformation towards e-mobility. 2020 marked a turning point in customer sentiment, and Volkswagen benefited from that trend. We delivered around 230,000 all-electric vehicles, three times more than the prior year. We lowered the emissions of new passenger cars in our European fleet significantly, and finished the year within a gram of our 2020 targets. In 2021, we are confident that we will meet the targets by scaling up production and deliveries. In the course of the year, our BEV sales will pick up step by step. Enyaq, Q4 e-tron, and the Cupra Born will be available in Europe. The ID.4 will be ramped up in two Chinese plants, and later the ID.6 will come to the Chinese market. In 2020, Traton implemented its global champion strategy to leverage scale and technology. Traton announced the acquisition of U.S. manufacturer Navistar to strengthen its presence in North America, the most profitable truck market in the world. Scania will establish a fully owned truck production facility in China, and MAN started its restructuring program in Germany to raise competitiveness. Traton will invest more than EUR 1 billion into electrification. Emissions in freight and local public transport can be reduced much faster than in the passenger car fleet. In Hamburg, MAN's Lion's City E bus is already part of a mobility ecosystem with zero emissions. Each electric bus saves up to 80 tons of CO2 per year. It is the right time for cities to switch from old diesel buses to electric transportation. MAN and Scania can help with it. In addition, WeShare operates around 800 ID.3s for private car sharing, and MOIA enables ridepooling with soon up to 500 also electric shuttles. Volkswagen will support the decarbonization of cities and regions worldwide. In Europe, we are helping to implement the Green Deal. In a partnership with the Greek government, we will replace the existing fleet on Astypalea Island with around 1,000 electric vehicles connected via a mobility app. Astypalea serves as a real-time experiment to explore what it takes to make people fully switch to sustainable mobility. In Spain, we just met with the prime minister and the Spanish king. Together, we share the vision of transforming Europe's second-biggest car industry with the local production of e-cars, battery cells, and battery modules. The project is on the starting block. Its execution will hinge upon a clear commitment by the European Commission. Ladies and gentlemen, e-mobility has won the race, but the transformation won't happen overnight. It will take two life cycles to change from old auto to new auto. New auto includes the switch to electric drives, which is the easier part, and to software, turning the car into a connected and autonomous device. In 2030, we foresee a 50% BEV share in our global deliveries. In Europe, we expect around 60%. In 2035, the majority of vehicles will be electric and around 40% of cars will drive autonomously. Financing the transition to new auto will be based on selling highly efficient combustion engine cars. We will keep selling ICEs in some regions longer than in others. E-mobility will come at different levels of speed globally, depending on local policies and the supply of CO2-free primary energy. Over the whole period, we will optimize the ICE business with fewer models, better price mix, lower fixed costs, leading to higher profitability. As a result, we can shift additional funds towards new auto. Ladies and gentlemen, Volkswagen always has been a platform champion. Millions of customers drive cars based on the production kits MQB and MLB. Now we are taking the platform approach to a new level and adjust it to our future core competencies, hardware, software, battery and charging, as well as mobility services. By providing strong, unified platforms, our passenger car brands can unleash their full potential and leverage synergies. The same principle applies to our truck and bus business. Our truck brands share software stacks, hardware platforms, and services. Our very own MEB platform serves as a proof of concept. The world's first volume platform has taken e-mobility into our core business. In the northern half of Germany, not only our own sites, but also the Ford site in Cologne, will be transformed by the MEB. Our component sites account for around 40% of the ID family value chain, with sites in Braunschweig, Kassel, and Salzgitter. Today, MEB production takes place in Zwickau and Dresden. It will start in Emden and in Hanover in 2022. It will also come to Wolfsburg in 2026 with Trinity. We are rolling out the MEB worldwide with a production capacity of 1 million vehicles. The ID.3 and ID.4 are produced in Germany, so will be the Q4 e-tron and the Cupra Born. In the Czech Republic, we will build the Enyaq. In China, following the launch of the ID.4 at two sites, the ID.6 will begin production this year. In 2022, the ID.4 will start production in Chattanooga in the United States. Volkswagen Anhui in China will start producing new MEB-based models in 2023. Ladies and gentlemen, over the next decade, software will transform the car fundamentally. The Car.Software org will develop our new software stack. Volkswagen OS will be first implemented in 2024 in the Audi project Artemis. The organization has been growing rapidly. We are getting job applications from all across the world, targeting up to 10,000 employees. It will be the second-largest software company in Europe, only after SAP. There is only one complex software domain where Europe still has a chance to play a leading role, the next generation of automotive software. Our car software work is in the best position to master this challenge, a huge chance for Germany and Europe. To develop the necessary skills, we are currently integrating the software capabilities of 15 companies, with more to come. Our goal is to increase the share of in-house development from currently 10% to at least 60% by 2025. Already today, most of the software developers are working in the area of automated driving. Similar to Tesla, they are taking an evolutionary approach, automated driving for private cars. Starting from today's driver assistance systems like Volkswagen's Travel Assist, we will develop automated driving functions up to level four. Together with Argo AI on the other side, we are pursuing a second way to autonomous driving, the driverless vehicle for mobility services. Here, the core systems are designed for lower speed and more complex environments, like in cities, using lidar as the base technology. It will allow us to build up our system capabilities for mobility and transport as a service. We are merging the Argo self-driving system, the autonomous ID. Buzz, and MOIA to a comprehensive mobility offering. The autonomous ID. Buzz will begin test operations this year, bringing the driverless system into full operation by 2025. Ladies and gentlemen, both elements of the transformation, hardware and software, cannot be separated from each other. Until 2022, electric platforms will take over the lead. In 2024, we start to merge our electric hardware platforms and synchronize with the unified software platform. We call it Scalable Systems Platform. Speedboat projects like Artemis, Trinity, and Apollon will lead the transformation. By the end of this decade, we will be able to roll out the SSP across all vehicle classes. As we announced during Power Day, we will reduce complexity and focus on only one single battery cell. From 2023 onward, we will be ready for rollout. By 2030, one cell format will cover 80% of the use cases in the group. New chemistry and manufacturing processes will reduce battery cost by up to 50%. This will make e-cars even more affordable, and as a result, even more attractive. Charging will be as easy as refueling. We are raising the number of fast-charging points in Europe by 5x over the next four years. Strong partners like Iberdrola, Enel, and BP will boost our European network. In the U.S. and China, Volkswagen is building nationwide fast-charging networks already with Electrify America and CAMS. At Volkswagen, we are building the skills to offer mobility as a service to our customers for every situation in life. Our goal is to have full system capabilities in each sector. With that, we will be an attractive partner for any mobility service company, whether MOIA, WeShare, car subscriptions or financing, customers will benefit from a seamless range of services. Ladies and gentlemen, within two life cycles, the car industry will radically change. Profit pools will shift from conventional cars into EVs and then radically into software. We are driving the change with our strong brands in premium and in volume, leveraging competitive scales in hardware, software and services. We are confident that following this transition, Volkswagen will be an even stronger company with higher market shares than today. Our profitable ICE business will broadly finance the transition and open new profit pools for us. In 2021, we will recover from COVID-19 and speed up the change once again. Thank you. Before handing over, let me thank Frank Witter. Frank, you always have secured our financial stability that was through many crises, but you always have been focusing as well on the strategy. You never left strategy out of sight. For me, personally, you always have been very, very supportive and committed, so thank you very much for that, and please go on. Thank you very much, Herbert, for your warm words. Very much appreciated. Lady and gentlemen, also a warm welcome from my side to our annual press conference. End of February, we provided you already with the key financials for calendar year 2020. Today, we are publishing the entire annual report, and we would also certainly shed more light on this truly unprecedented calendar year 2020. Let's start with the VW Group in total. Certainly, COVID was in this calendar year all over us and certainly our numbers and had a negative impact on our business worldwide. I think we truly did a good job on effective crisis management in the respective brands and also centrally under the leadership of Gunnar Kilian. We had a rapid recovery in our second home market, China, which clearly helped a lot of our brands and the premium business, again, demonstrated to be more robust than volume, and also our financial services turned out to be very, very stable. If you start with sales revenue, we ended the year in total with EUR 222.9 billion. That is certainly down EUR 30 billion, equivalent to 11.8%. We have a year which is clearly a divide between H1, which was down more than 23% versus 2019, and a much, much stronger H2, which was already basically on prior year level with particularly strong momentum in Q4. Key drivers for the development on the revenue side were clearly on the negative side, the volumes which we were missing, and exchange rates were also working against us. The usual suspects, so to speak, the weak South American currencies, the Russian ruble, Turkish lira, but also the renminbi and the U.S. dollars didn't help on the revenue side. Positive, we continued to have a positive mix effect in our numbers, particularly type mix, more than EUR 5 billion was very strong, and also we have been able to price more than EUR 2 billion positive on the revenue side. If you now focus on the operating profit side, which came in in total at EUR 10.6 billion, which is certainly down EUR 8.7 billion versus the previous year, equivalent to 45%. If we go back for just a second, how we looked at the world, how uncertain the world looked like to us in April and May, and I think when we gave our projections at the time, we can clearly say that those numbers we have been posting at the end of the calendar years are much, much better than our expectations in April and May. We had a very strong recovery, thankfully, in H2 2020, with a very exceptional strong Q4, which added up to EUR 8.2 billion for the Volkswagen Group in total, which is a return on sales, which is even for our standards, extremely high of more than 12%. It was also a year where we prepared for the future. We had restructuring expenses in the automotive division in total, EUR 0.5 billion. The major impact came from MAN Energy Solutions, almost EUR 360 million, but also Volkswagen Passenger Cars, again in South America, had to restructure its operations, which did count for - EUR 132 million. Last but not least, also Bentley, almost EUR 30 million are included as for the others in the operating result. These are investments into positive effects for the years to come. 2020, ladies and gentlemen, again, was a year with special items in our P&L. EUR 900 million did hit the P&L. On the positive side, EUR 1.4 billion lower than in calendar year 2020, but still a tremendous burden to our P&L. Cash out, not to be mixed up, cash out was for diesel EUR 2.5 billion. All special items are diesel related only. The operating return before special items came in at 4.8%, which is obviously down from the 7.6% in 2019. The Volkswagen Group, ladies and gentlemen, proved its robustness in calendar year 2020, despite the continuing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Let's now focus on the top line results for the individual brands. You will certainly get much more details from my colleagues in their respective sessions. Let's start with Volkswagen Passenger Cars. I think when we looked at the numbers at Q3, it wasn't clear that we will post the profit of EUR 500 million for the full calendar year. We had a strong recovery in Q4 with a margin of 6%. The operating return on sales before special item came in at 0.6%. Certainly also Volkswagen Passenger Cars as the global leading player, suffered from lower volumes and also the negative exchange rates I was referring to, but the colleagues in the brand worked hard on the fixed cost and also better pricing did help. In the net results, we had special items recorded of EUR 800 million, all for diesel. Let's go to South Germany with Audi. Operating profit before special items came in at EUR 2.7 billion, which is 39.3% down, clearly a recovering in the second half because at half year break, numbers were much smaller. Decreased volumes and negative exchange rate effects again hit the P&L, also Audi was able to reduce fixed costs. We had a positive one-off effect from the deconsolidation of AID. EUR 500 million of the total EUR 800 million effect is in Audi's P&L, Audi's transformation plan and Audi's Zukunft program do work and help Audi through this difficult calendar year. The operating return before special items came in at 5.5%, certainly not reaching up to the 8.1% for calendar year 2019. Q4 was exceptionally strong with more than 50% return on sales. That is a remarkable quarter for the fine brand. Also in Audi, we had special items for diesel, EUR 200 million were included. If you now go on with another volume brand, Škoda, operating profit at EUR 800 million, certainly lower than the EUR 1.7 billion a year ago. Again, lower volumes, the strong Czech koruna, and also emissions related expenses of more than EUR 300 million, which were included, were providing strong headwind, but cost optimization partly compensated. In total, a positive 4.4% operating return on sales. If we now move on to SEAT, Southern Europe. The operating result, we post a loss of EUR 339 million, certainly a huge swing from the EUR 445 million a year ago. Lower volumes, particularly in Europe, did hurt and also emissions related expenses of roughly EUR 260 million are included. Operating return on sales respectively is - 3.7%. We also had important product launches in calendar year 2020, which will help in the years ahead, the new Leon family, also the Formentor. It's a tremendous coupe crossover with two plug-in hybrid versions, which are available for customer orders. Going again into luxury. Bentley, still, even with the difficult market conditions, did post a profit of EUR 20 million. We had to absorb higher depreciation charges, one-off restructuring expenses of roughly EUR 28 million, which I already referred to, and negative exchange rate effects. Vehicle sales were quite strong, especially China, and we did see, generally speaking, worldwide, a lower impact from Corona on premium and luxury segments. Operating return came in at 1%. Coming to Porsche, a very impressive EUR 4 billion operating profit. We had this lower impact, which I already referred to, on premium and luxury segments, which certainly led to lower vehicle sales of - 4.2%. We had some cost increases for digitalization and electrification, very important for the future going forward, some negative exchange rate effects. It is a very top performance by our colleagues in Stuttgart. Still posting 15.4% in such a year on operating return on sales is remarkable. Just to cite Q4, 24.8% operating margin is, even for this fine brand, a very tremendous quarter, and that certainly can't be just carry on to be the benchmark. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, an operating result also in negative territory with -EUR 454 million. A huge swing from the EUR 510 million profit just a year ago. 110,000 lower sales couldn't be absorbed. CO2 related expenses also for Volkswagen Passenger Cars, almost EUR 340 million are included. Negative exchange rates did hurt. The guys worked hard. Product cost optimization in some mixed effect were able to offset some of that headwind. At the end of the day, if you sum it up, operating return on sales at - 4.9%. Move on to heavy duty truck and buses. Scania, one of the benchmarks in the industry. Even that strong brand couldn't avoid an operating profit decline of 50% to, but still in profit lend EUR 0.7 billion. Lower volumes and also negative exchange rate effects did hurt. The new truck is in the market, we have a positive mix effect and also a very stable service business, which is particularly helpful in a crisis. Operating return came in in total for the calendar year at 6.5%, and Q4 was almost 10% return on sales was back on track where this fine brand belongs. MAN Commercial Vehicles also certainly impacted by weak markets. We had a loss of EUR -633 million, lower vehicle sales, but also launch cost for the new truck generation, which is going certainly to help and be an asset in the years to come. Operating return on sales came in at -5.8%. The restructuring program you all know about is not yet included in the figures for the calendar year 2020. This will hit the P&L in the first quarter of this year. Clearly, it is again an investment to improve the performance in the coming years. Let's take a look at China, our second home market. Group deliveries came in at 3.8 million vehicles, only 9.1% down year on year. This is the best-performing region for us in the entire world. It is also the most important single market for the Volkswagen Group. Roughly 41% of all our deliveries are belonging to China, and we appreciate the market share of 19.3%, which clearly states that we are the proud number one in China. We had a very weak Q1 in 2020. You might remember, China was the very first region which was hit the hardest in Q1, but we truly had what the textbook would call a sharp V-shape recovery. The proportionate operating result of our Chinese joint ventures came in at EUR 3.6 billion, certainly not reaching up to the EUR 4.4 billion in 2019. Just to remind all of us, the operating profit of the joint venture companies is not included in the operating profit of the Volkswagen Group. Their profits are recognized at equity in the financial result on a proportionate basis. Volkswagen Financial Services, the entire division ended up with sales revenue going up 1.5% to EUR 40.8 billion. Consequently, the number of contracts also have been increased by 1.8% to more than 24 million contracts as we speak. The penetration rate, the share of the business financial services supports, has been increased by another percentage point to 35.5%, particularly the used vehicle business turned out to be strong. The operating profit ended up to be EUR 3 billion, only 6.2% down. Yes, we had increased risk cost. Again, ladies and gentlemen, you know us quite well. We took a very prudent approach again, and we had no issues with residual values, which we certainly appreciate. Let's now take a closer look at the financial result for the group, which came in in total at EUR 2 billion, up EUR 600 million from calendar year 2019. Let's start with the at equity accounted investments, which came in at EUR 2.8 billion, obviously down EUR 600 million versus prior year, just simply due to lower profits from the Chinese joint ventures. The interest result at - EUR 1.5 billion, EUR 100 million better due to lower interest expenses. The other financial result at EUR 0.7 billion, EUR 1.1 billion higher than a year ago. We are a proud shareholder in QuantumScape, and their listing is the reason why we had a positive non-cash effect in the financial result of EUR 1.4 billion, which drove the improvement in the other financial result. We should keep in mind, share prices are very volatile. That is also true for QuantumScape. We don't know yet what the valuation effect in Q1 2021 will possibly be. Cash is king. Also let's take first a look at the total P&L for calendar year 2020. At EUR 10.6 billion, the operating profit before special items for calendar year 2020 exceeded the expectations we all had in April/May 2020 significantly. You find here the summary of the key top financials. If you are interested in more details for the fourth quarter, please refer to our investor relations website. Cash is king, what I already talked about. The reported net cash flow came in at strong EUR 6.4 billion, although we had lower profit before tax, -EUR 6.2 billion, versus the prior year. We also had EUR 600 million higher cash outflows for the diesel issue. We did rigorous working capital management, particularly lower inventories and lower receivables that help us, and significantly reduced spending on CapEx, -EUR 2.9 billion. That's another good proof point how different the calendar years turned out in 2020 to be for us. Net cash flow in H1 was -EUR 5 billion and in H2 +EUR 11 billion. A huge swing also on the cash side. You know we also report clean cash flow, which is basically the adjustment for the cash outflows for the exceptional item diesel, which were EUR 2.5 billion negative. Also we separate the M&A effects, which added up to EUR 1 billion. The year was closed with a strong EUR 10 billion clean net cash flow, and we are very proud of that number. That certainly has a good impact on the net liquidity of our automotive division, which came in at EUR 26.8 billion, even up 26% from a good number the previous year. Beside obviously the positive net cash flow development, the other determining factors was the issuance of hybrid bonds. We increased hybrid capital by EUR 3 billion and we paid a dividend to our shareholders. It totaled up to -EUR 2.4 billion, and we also did the squeeze out at Audi, which will have positive impact in the long run, but did cost us EUR 200 million on the cash side. Automotive's net liquidity, in total EUR 26.8 billion, is extremely solid and is up EUR 5.5 billion. That is not all what is important certainly to our shareholders. Let's talk about the dividend. The earnings attributable to Volkswagen AG shareholders are adding up to EUR 8.3 billion. This is related to the individual shares worth EUR 16.60 per ordinary share and EUR 16.66 per preferred share. Despite corona, ladies and gentlemen, we achieved a solid result in calendar year 2020. The Board of Management and the Supervisory Board therefore proposing to our shareholders an unchanged dividend of EUR 4.80 per ordinary share and EUR 4.86 per preferred share. That leads, if we add it up, to a payout ratio of 29%, quite significantly up from the 18.1% a year ago. We are clearly approaching our payout target ratio of 30%. Let me come to my closing and the summary. The figures for calendar year 2020 clearly prove, ladies and gentlemen, the Volkswagen Group is robust and performs even under very difficult market conditions. We are capable to finance our transformation. We deem that to be of extreme importance. We have a very strong momentum from H2 of calendar year 2020, sorry, which we will carry over into this calendar year. We have programs for fixed costs and procurement, and they are going to make us even more robust going forward. We certainly, ladies and gentlemen, will strive for the upper end of the range for the return on sales in calendar year 2020. Ladies and gentlemen, my term as CFO is coming to an end in due course. I'm looking forward to spend more time with my family, with my wife and my kids, and I'm very, very happy to hand over to Arno Antlitz, somebody I and you already know for years, and Arno particularly from his assignments at Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Audi. Thanks to all of you for your support and your feedback during these honestly not so easy last five and a half years. I'm very grateful for the opportunity which was given to me. I wish Arno and the new Board of Management a lot of success. Arno, it is now your turn to please shed more light on us for what you have in the books for calendar year 2021 and for your plans going forward. Arno, the stage is yours. Thank you very much, Frank. First of all, Frank, thank you for your kind words and also for all the support and the excellent collaboration throughout all the years we've worked together. I also very much appreciate the robust financial foundation that you are handing over to me. Ladies and gentlemen, it's an honor for me that the Supervisory Board has put their trust in me as Group CFO. I'm really looking forward to steering the Volkswagen Group through the transformation together with the whole board team. I'm deeply convinced that Volkswagen has the technological competence, the financial strength, the right people, and the values to shape mobility for generations to come. Herbert and Frank have already described what we have achieved in 2020, now I would like to turn the focus to 2021 and beyond. Our goal is to finance the business transformation of our group. For this, we need robust earnings and cash flows. This is very clear. Our strategic targets are defined, and we will stick to them. Our target is to achieve a return on sales in the range of 7%-8% in 2025 at the latest, and to generate at least EUR 10 billion of clean cash flow. Let's now take a closer look to our outlook and to our guidance on 2021. We've guided for a return on sales in the range of 5%-6.5%. Rest assured, we are striving for the upper end. For clean cash flow, we are sticking to our strategic target of greater than EUR 10 billion. To get there, we need strong sales momentum, commitment to our BEV ramp-up, and continued strong cost and investment discipline. Strong working capital management is also key. I've just mentioned strong cost discipline, but be assured, we will make no compromise when it comes to the necessary investment in future technologies. For that reason, we've guided for R&D around 7%. This is a reflection of our execution of our BEV strategy and of building up our software competence. In relation to CapEx, we will continue our strict discipline approach and are guiding for around 6%. It's our goal to stay well below this figure. It's still early days in 2021, and 2021 is not risk-free. Our level of achievement depends on how the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic situation develops and the level of pace of recovery. There's a further risk regarding sufficient supply of semiconductors for the entire automotive industry. We are striving to keep the operating impact of current undersupply of semiconductors as low as possible and to compensate them as far as possible during the remainder of the year. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take the opportunity to lay out my priorities for the years to come. I have two very clear strategic goals as CFO. First, financially steer the transformation. This includes allocation and shifting of resources and capital towards electrification, digitalization, and mobility services. Our second goal is to safeguard and further strengthen our financial foundation. To achieve these twofold goals, we will focus on six major topics. First, product transformation towards electric. Second, digitalization and developing further our software stack. Topic number three, capturing group-wide synergies between brands. I am deeply convinced group-wide synergies provide a unique source of competitive advantage for us. Topic number four, steering group-wide cost and efficiency programs to finance the transformation. Number five, strengthening brand positioning and pricing. Everything we do will be based on our integrity and values. We are fully committed to continuing to transform the company. On the left side of the chart, you see our investment in terms of R&D and CapEx in each five-year planning round. You also see the share of allocation of investments in new technologies, BEVs, software services. Each planning round, we increase the share and we will continue to do so. The question is whether this is ambitious enough. We think it's extremely ambitious. By 2025, we expect our sales of battery vehicles to amount up to 20% of our total fleet, and we will see an increase each year beyond 2025. In the meantime, the ICE business will help to generate the cash flows necessary to fund the transformation. We are ambitious in our transformation. We will offer around 50 BEV models until 2020-2030. Combined with the shift in resource allocation, we will transform this company to a leading tech player in our industry. These ambitious plans need to be financed. Therefore, we need to keep overhead costs under tight control. In the past, our fixed costs grew over time. This is not necessarily a problem for a company that is growing, but for various reasons, our overhead costs grew faster than our sales. We want to reverse this trend. We are convinced that a lower fixed cost base is necessary to improve our competitive position and to finance our future. Therefore, we want to reduce fixed costs without R&D and CapEx until 2023 by 5% versus a defined base in 2020. This equals a reduction of around EUR 2 billion. In this cost base, we have included general overhead costs in our headquarters, indirect costs in our plants worldwide, all the budgets of our national sales companies, including marketing spend, to name some examples. Taking the year 2019 as a more normalized base, the program target implies a reduction of around 10%. We also communicated that we intend to reduce material costs by 7% by 2023. Later this year, Murat Aksel will give a deep dive to explain his strategic approach and the financial impact of that. Ladies and gentlemen, Volkswagen is a bundle of some of the most fascinating, powerful, and valuable brands in our industry. Without a doubt, strong individual brands will remain a differentiating factor going forward. We will strive to even better position our brands in the future, draw synergies where possible, and work hard on cost and efficiency for the good of our customers and stakeholders. At the same time, we need to transform ourselves into a unified technology and mobility service group. This means that we need to shift our focus also towards value drivers like unified software stack, best platforms, and autonomous driving, to name a few. Our internal decision-making and capital allocation will be geared towards this goal. Step by step, we will complement our current planning and steering of individual brand performance with focus along these value drivers, best platforms, software stack, battery, energy and charging, and mobility platform and automated driving. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a clear plan. We will scale our best platforms. We are going to develop a leading automotive software stack, and we will continue to invest in autonomous driving and mobility services. During this transition, our traditional business will help to generate the profits and cash flows to do so. We are convinced that based on these unique opportunities and a solid financial basis, we will be a leader in the transformation of our industry. We will preserve our natural resources, and we will achieve this with integrity and based on our values. We are looking forward to this task. Thank you very much. Thank you, Herbert, Frank, and Arno. We have heard from Herbert that Volkswagen will be counting on strong platforms to tap into future profit pools. We have learned from Frank why Volkswagen was able to manage the COVID year 2020 relatively well. Arno has presented his outlook for this year and given us some insight into his agenda for 2021 and the years beyond. Now it's time for your questions. We are switching to German because most journalists who've dialed in are from Germany today. Of course, you can also ask your questions in English. Dear journalists, you can now use the following channels to ask your questions directly via the streaming portal. You can also call us. The telephone number can be found in the press release. Please make sure that you mute your phone during this time to stop any echoes, but make sure that you don't get confused between the time lag between the stream and the actual line. It's important to switch your audio off when you ask your questions. We'll come to the question and answer session. We have Christoph Steitz from Reuters to begin with. Mr. Steitz, please ask your question. That seems to be taking a moment. We'll move on to Jan Schwartz from Reuters. He would like to know what financial impact the chip shortage is expected to have this year and how long the bottleneck is expected to persist. I'll be answering the question in German," says Mr. Diess. The situation is a little bit unclear due to the weather conditions in the U.S. For the entire year, it's not possible to say what the situation will be. We prioritize plugins, but we have production of around 100,000. We won't be able to make up the backlog. We're going to do everything we can in order to mitigate the impact to the greatest degree possible. To quantify the estimate, perhaps I'll hand over to Frank for this part. I think we'll be able to catch up a little bit in the second half of the year, but it's a complex situation. You've got long preparation times with the manufacturing, but we've tried to do whatever we can, and I do believe that there will be an impact. I do believe that we'll be able to limit the impact. The second half of the year will be extremely important. We'll have to try and recover from this part. It's a topic that we'll have to deal with for most of the year, particularly in the first half of the year. I think it's reflected in our guidance. We have another question from Jan Schwartz. A lot has been said about the suspension of the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine and also about a third wave of the coronavirus. What kind of impact will these news have on your outlook for 2021? The answer now. Of course, it's far too early to say. We believe that we'll be able to maintain our guidance. We learned a lot in the year 2020. We set up teams, task forces. Production was geared very closely towards demand, and this is something that benefited us in the second half of the year. Based on what we know today, we anticipate that we'll be able to maintain our guidance. Of course, it's impossible to say precisely what's going to happen with the pandemic. Thank you very much, Mr. Antlitz. We also have a question from James Attwood. He is from Haymarket in the United Kingdom, Autocar. He is asking about the SSP platform and also about whether it will replace the existing platforms, and he would like to know what kind of impact this will have on the factories. Now on to the answer. The SSP platform will replace the existing platforms, but over a long period of time, which means that the startup will begin with Artemis, so 2024, 2025. Now, it shouldn't be something which could be seen as something brand new. What we're taking is what we have got with the MEB. We'll have cost improvements. As you will know, standardization of the battery is going to play a significant role. Of course, this goes hand in hand with a new electronic architecture, which is going to provide much greater computing power and add more software to the vehicles. The SSP will eventually be the single backbone for the group. We're speaking about beyond 2035 here. Thank you very much. We also have a question from Daniel Zwick. I'd like to know what your opinion is on Škoda. Is it a brand that we'll be more actively focusing on in other markets? I'd just like to know about your geographic positioning of the different brands. I have a question for you, Mr. Antlitz. You would have watched the VW Power Day yesterday. There were lots of gentlemen who were giving presentations yesterday. There was a lady. One lady, and the rest of them were gentlemen. That's a very small number of women, poorly represented. What about Audi? There were two women on the board. You are going to be Chief Financial Officer. Are you going to increase the representation of women here, particularly in areas of the future, such as e-mobility, for example, or software? If this is the case, could you be specific about this? My third and final question, how likely is it the IAA Passenger Cars will take place this September? Thank you very much from Hamburg. Škoda in China, to answer your question. Škoda is one of our core brands. Now, it's positioned differently in China to how it is in Europe. Now, Škoda, over recent months, has admittedly not had an easy time because in China, a certain level of consolidation is taking place, and smaller brands which aren't as represented in this huge market, I think maybe it has a market share of around 1%, are having great difficulties. That said, Škoda, with its foundation of our factories and also with the modular platform, it has a very good starting point. It is continually working on improving its positioning when it comes to new models. Škoda is being electrified. Now, we do have somebody working on Škoda in China, but they're also looking to improve it there. Now, Škoda has a number of other tasks that it is facing, overall responsibility for the Russian market. I think that Škoda certainly has everything that is necessary to succeed in China. I do admit the last few months and years weren't particularly easy for Škoda. We're able to be a new approach, and Škoda is globally, in the volume segment, a huge success. The volume segment, we've had huge gains in market share, a great cost base. We heard about the figures, 10% in the volume segment. For this reason, we believe that Škoda can also be a success in China, given its success elsewhere in the world. The IAA, the trade fair. We are committed to organizing the event. The VDA is convinced that it will be able to take place. We will make our contribution to the event. We do expect that we'll be able to hold the IAA in Munich, and we are preparing for it. About female representation, I'll hand over to Mr. Antlitz. Here you spoke about Audi. You're also head of the supervisory board there. Yeah, we've got a great board of management team. Audi, I'm looking forward to working with my colleagues here in Wolfsburg as well. I would say that overall, we are aiming to improve female representation throughout the company, particularly in management positions, especially when it comes to the new areas of technology. I think, well, Mr. Diess mentioned the supervisory board. Of course, he said that this is something the supervisory board has to deal with. We are trying to improve the female headcount throughout the entire company. Thank you very much. Let's take a question from Bill Boston, The Wall Street Journal. He has asked about the e-ramp-up in the U.S. and the plans for Chattanooga and the ID.4 and projects after that. We're going to answer in German here. We've made a strong commitment in the U.S., and our team has said this is also rightly so. Scott Keogh has a powerful team, and we have all the trust in him. Good recovery of the brand also in the U.S. after diesel, because we had a 30% diesel share on the U.S. market. Major loss of the image and trust in customers there, but we've come back. It's enjoying a good reputation, the brand, good market shares, good brand portfolio, model portfolio. We've also made forward-looking commitments in the U.S. Yes, indeed, we are building the probably largest fast charge network in the U.S. in that market. It was also our decision to establish a battery cell production, including suppliers. Our factory in Chattanooga will be made ready for electric vehicles. The ID.4 is going to launch there, which is currently built in China and Europe. It will first be imported to the U.S., and then after 2022, it will be built in the U.S. That's a strong commitment. It's investments to the tunes of billions of euros. We see that also the U.S. administration under Joe Biden is following up on that strategy, focusing on e-mobility. We believe, yes, this is the right time. This is a good investment, which consolidates our position. Brand-wise, Scott Keogh is an important brand man, in inverted commas, because he's been driving Audi for 10 years and has brought Audi to the reputable situation it's now in. Thanks to electrification, this gives us a major opportunity to give radiance to that brand. Very important product for the year to come is the ID. Buzz. That, I should say, really is an icon on the American market, because this is how the Volkswagen Bus, the Pentagon, has been truly an icon. We're planning to release that vehicle now on the U.S. market. Will be built in Hanover, though, and I think it's a good product portfolio. All of our product portfolio of electric vehicles is available, but it's also true that in the next weeks and months, we are going to think about launching more electric vehicles in the United States. Mr. Antlitz, am I right? Yes. All right. There's a follow-up question by William Boston here, and he asks about the transformation and the group's assets. He mentions Lamborghini, Bugatti, Ducati, but also Porsche, and how they are positioning themselves and what future outlook those brands have, he would like to know. The answer is that I think we have seen a good allocation of brands within our group, because our decision was to take Bugatti to Porsche and then into a minority shareholding together with an e-car producer, a very competent one, mind you. We believe that Bugatti, the Bugatti brand, will get an environment that is actually stronger than being here in Wolfsburg in the volume segment. We have more synergies over there, carbon fiber bodies, high-performance batteries. It's in better hands over there. It's also our decision to pool our premium portfolio at Audi, together with Hildegard Wortmann and Markus Duesmann. We have a lot of premium experience in that brand and great passion and commitment. Markus Duesmann is a passionate motorbike driver and also a sports car driver. All that means that Audi really is a competence center now for our premium and new segment, Lamborghini, Bentley, which is very important, and Ducati in that as well. Audi is just reorganizing itself to ensure lean management of those brands, leveraging all the synergies for our group, which is banking on platforms going forward, as you have heard in our earlier statements. We believe this is a good allocation of responsibilities. I think the brands we have are very valuable. Lamborghini has developed really well over the past years. We're talking about double-digit profitability rates, younger customers than Ferrari has, and a better product portfolio, we believe, than Ferrari. It's developing really well. In terms of Bentley, the company, the brand has recovered financially. Thanks to the synergies with Audi and Bentley and the new platforms, Artemis and SSP will allow us to pool synergies in such a way that Bentley will be bouncing back to double figures of profitability. That's very important for Bentley in the premium segment. We are upbeat about it. We believe this is the right structure for our group. Thank you. Our next question is Christiaan Hetzner from Automotive News Europe. Mr. Hetzner, you have the floor. Good morning. Thank you very much. I have two questions. Number one, on semiconductors and the bottlenecks we're having there. Now, could you say that such critical components like semiconductors are probably coming from parts of the world that are not really consolidating the supply chain? Wouldn't you rethink your strategy there, possibly have critical components like semiconductors built elsewhere in the world, namely in Europe? Question on vertical integration with the integration of Northvolt too, and you have partners that also you operate your battery factories with. Something you did not mention is how do you secure supplies of battery materials, raw materials like lithium? Do you have supply arrangements, agreements already with commodity suppliers, with your new battery factories? Tesla, as we've heard, is going to source lithium from Nevada in the U.S. What's your take on that? Answer. Absolutely valid point to make. We must say that commodity hedging for us has always been a major priority. We never ordered exclusively with our first-tier suppliers, especially when we talk about rare earth materials, palladium, platinum. We have always had direct delivery contacts also-Brought individual deliveries forward in order to compensate for cyclical changes in the market. You're right when you say that we need to do more there on the semiconductor side. Hereto, we had left it to Bosch and Continental and our first-tier suppliers. In the future, the critical semiconductors and the relevant volumes will be sourced directly in the future with our second tier and third-tier suppliers. At least this is what we want to negotiate with them. Going forward, we hope that also in critical situations, we can secure suppliers. Yes, you're right, for new commodities that we need for battery production in the past years, we've looked into those. Talk about lithium here and nickel. We want to consolidate our sourcing position. We have long-term contracts also with raw materials companies, but it's certainly true with the rollout of more e-mobility that will be more relevant than ever. Our colleague, Murat Aksel, is currently in the process of establishing the right setup of competencies and skills. Just to follow up, you also talked about siting factories in Europe. I don't think that's an easy thing to do, especially semiconductor production is a global industry. Different technology is used in other parts of the world. We have a bottleneck now with a 54 nanometer semiconductors that are usually also used in consumer electronics. Establishing and building up a new and exclusive automotive supply chain for Europe is probably not going to happen. It's not going to work. It's not going to be efficient either. I think we need to make sure that there's plenty of redundancy in the system. Semiconductor supplies will continue to be a global market in the future as well. Thank you. Now we have Christoph Rauwald from Bloomberg. Mr. Rauwald, the floor is yours. Good morning. Can you hear me? I'm calling from Frankfurt. I'm in the English call, getting the English translation here. The group in the past had also more economies of scale that it could use than others that didn't have the MQB and the MEB. You couldn't quite increase the profitability the way you wanted to in the past. Why was that in the past, and how can you make sure that going forward with the scalable platform, the SSP, you will be boosting your profitability more than you did in the past? That's number one. Number two, are you planning to sell more shares to Traton? I mean, the market is a difficult one because of the small free float. Can you update us on Traton and what you are planning to do going forward? A final follow-up, because I wasn't quite clear about the translation earlier, have you confirmed that you're planning to transfer Bugatti to Rimac? Mr. Rauwald, you will have to repeat your last questions. We couldn't quite hear you. We had some technology glitches over here. Didn't quite hear you. Can you repeat? Can you confirm what you said before? I didn't quite get the translation earlier. The question is, are you transferring Bugatti to Rimac? That was the question. Well, I'll start with the last one. Transferring to Rimac is not true. Porsche is currently preparing a partnership that is currently under discussion with Rimac. Porsche will be taking care of that. The whole thing is not yet finalized. What we want to do is to transition responsibility of Bugatti to Porsche, and Porsche, in all probability, will establish a joint venture with Rimac, with a minority share of Porsche. The platform question, Mr. Rauwald. I do not share your view there because I think that Volkswagen's platforms are an important building block of the Volkswagen success story. Also, the earlier platforms designed under Mr. Piëch, the PQ platforms rolled out globally, that led to today's strength of Volkswagen. Not only financial strength, mind you, but also the product substance. If you look at the Golf today and the related products like the Škoda Octavia, the SEAT León, and the Audi A3, all of these are based on the MQB platform, second generation, and they still are clearly superior as products in the market. Don't just look at the cost effect, really, but also at the technical competence of those platforms. For Volkswagen and for the group brands, the platforms have made sure that we roll out technologically superior concepts at a competitive price tag. We believe that it's going to be the case again for the new MQB, for the PPE, and then finally, the SSP platform. Something that was always something we needed to discuss about is how many platforms does a single group need? We believe that the differentiation of different drivetrain concepts, longitudinal engines, transverse engines, rear-wheel drive platforms, front-wheel drive, transverse engines, which is to be 80% of the automotive sector, is no longer that relevant because all the new platforms have a battery skateboard with either front-wheel. [Non-English content]. There were two components to it. We have global targets for all of the different brands and units. The brands are responsible for the implementation of the program, but we also want to utilize synergies within the group. With the fixed cost potential, we've got fixed cost potential within the brands, but what's going to happen is that the brands will look for fixed cost reduction potential. There might be one brand which looks more closely at the planning for other brands, and this is a plan which started in parallel across the different brands. Volkswagen has made a big step here as a brand. We also have Kosei Fukao from Nikkei who is on the line for us. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Okay, thank you. My name is Kosei Fukao. Thank you for taking my question. I have two questions. 50% of global sales mean that you will produce around 6 million battery electric vehicles by 2030. The current capacity is 1 million units. How do you plan to increase this? On the other hand, you have to reduce the surplus employment in a socially responsible manner. Could you tell us the outlook of this? Second question is a bit basic questions, but Mr. Diess, Volkswagen is making a big commitment to battery electric vehicles. What do you think would happen if you don't commit to battery electric vehicle or if you would stay open to all technology, including hybrid vehicle and fuel cell vehicle, et cetera? Thank you. We said 50% electric vehicles by 2030. I think this is a well-founded estimate. Now, if you look at the fleet targets that are being discussed as part of the Green Deal, this will mean that we will probably have more than 50%, maybe 55% or 60%. This is probably what we'll need, but there are other technologies that could play a role here, but this will depend on the funding environment. Now, in Europe, we do have plug-in hybrids. However, plug-in hybrids only work where they are subsidized. In the U.S., they don't play a role, and in some other European markets, they don't really play a role as well, which is why we do anticipate that the key approach for reducing CO₂ emissions will be electric vehicles. We do not believe that there are any real alternatives to this, and we also believe that where you have a charging infrastructure, where customers can enjoy the benefits of electric vehicles, that this is where we have a lot of potential. Mobility, we need to have a cheaper individual mobility than more expensive mobility in the future. We believe this is possible, and there are several reasons for this. We believe that by 2030, we'll have a significant increase in electromobility. We expect a share of 50%. Of course, this will depend on several different factors. For example, what the situation, if there is subsidies, how the government deals with the prospect of electric vehicles, funding, et cetera. Now, the drivetrain concepts, there will be hybridization. There will also be brake energy recuperation. These are technologies that we've already rolled out. There are 48-volt systems and also some high-voltage systems. It's not going to be the key means of reducing CO2 emissions, which means that when it comes to electric vehicles, the second question, what was it about here? About the headcount. This is something which has been talked up a little bit and probably exaggerated. We spoke to the Fraunhofer Institute, which said that in the vehicle factories, the impact will be quite small. We'll be able to offset this with fluctuation. Of course, electric vehicles require a lower headcount in the vehicle factories, but this is something that we can deal with. The major change will take place with the powertrains. One thing that's important to know is that the powertrain, when it comes to jobs in the automotive industry, is not that significant because you've got a high level of automation here. If you think about engines, the individual engine parts are large cast parts, and there's a high level of automation involved, which means that the headcount isn't particularly high in this area. Maybe 10%-15% of the headcount is involved here. Nothing else will change. If you look at the other areas, if you look at the steering system, axles, electronics, seats, the interior, all of this will remain the same. I think that the impact on jobs is often exaggerated. I think there will actually probably more likely to be positive effects, which is why I assume that when the MEB is rolled out, particularly in Northern Germany, we also have a higher share of self-produced parts when it comes to the electrical components. We also get things from Cologne as well. We believe that it will actually lead to job security and perhaps even an increase in the headcount in Lower Saxony and in Northern Germany. Let me just add something here. As Mr. Diess said, I believe that the impact is negligible today, but this is something that's been looked at in our programs. All of the different brands have set up programs. Audi has, for example, Audi Zukunft, Audi Future is the name of it. Volkswagen also has a future pact, which it introduced at a very early stage with a roadmap for the transformation, which means that the headcount effect that is anticipated, it has been taken into account into the brand's programs. Thank you very much. We have Marco Engemann from DPA. Mr. Engemann, please. I would like to go back to a topic you mentioned earlier. You said that in the next few years, you want to finance your electric initiative. Mr. Michalios is leaving the company, and he spoke about the year 2026. He said maybe by 2040, it'll be the end of the combustion engine. What's your view on this? Another question, with the CO2 emissions, you are above the level that you said in January. You said, are there any more provisions going to be made for this? Is it possible? No provisions will be required for this. We are optimistic that we will meet the CO2 targets. It's even possible that we might be lower. About the end of the combustion engine, I think Audi said that from 2023, they don't want to develop any more combustion engine vehicles. What we like to say is that we operate globally, and you have to be frank here. In several regions throughout the world, electric vehicles are probably not going to be the solution for reducing CO2 emissions. This might apply to India, where they only have coal-powered energy. Now, maybe it applies to Latin America as well, which seems to be looking at biofuels with ethanol as a means of reducing CO2 emissions. Here, power generation is mainly coal-based, which is why it's important to bear in mind that the combustion engine will have a different lifespan depending on the different regions. Electrification is not going to generate the desired CO2 emission reductions in all different regions equally. For this reason, we need to keep our options open. There are model platforms that are ongoing in these countries, and it's anticipated that they will continue to run beyond 2035. It will make sense from an economic and also from an environmental perspective, which is why we have not set a specific target for ceasing production of combustion engines. Okay, thank you. We go to the chat portal. We have Jack Ewing from The New York Times who asked about QuantumScape and also the technology and how far QuantumScape is scalable as a technology. The answer, yes. We are committed with a stake in QuantumScape, and we are supporting developments as closely as we can. We continue to believe that QuantumScape is the most promising engagement because this will help the solid-state batteries to prevail and also the capital market support that optimism. That obviously is important because it will improve battery technology going forward. In advance, we also collaborate with QuantumScape. Still, having said that, it is not true that we can say now at what point in time solid-state batteries can be rolled out because we do not have production applications. In lab testing, they work really well. The membranes work well. We're lacking a concept and an industrialized solution for solid-state. Obviously, we are collaborating, we're helping, an exactly defined time of when they will roll out, we cannot give you. We still and continue to believe that solid-state batteries should be the main research focus to make batteries safer and more powerful. We continue to support our commitment in QuantumScape. That's rock solid. We have Yann Schreiber from AFP, he's asking about software development. You said that 60% will be in-house software development going forward, which elements of the software you want to do in-house and which one would you like to develop with partners? Answer, this is a good question. Why are we doing it ourselves in the first place? If we need to update and continue to develop software because vehicles of the future will need to see software deployed in the car. A car needs to be regularly update while the car is operating on the road. This is why we cannot develop software or configure software across different stages, test it, and then install it, hardwire it into the car. Instead, this goes back to your earlier question, everything that's critical for the functionality of the car and the software, which needs to be critically tested, should be the core competence of Volkswagen, including the operating system, things where mistakes may happen, where errors can be made. We have to be sure that our device, if it is in the customer's hand, always has the right software on board. There's also a second area to that, and I think you would have understood it in our earlier presentations, because we believe that autonomous driving will evolve, and therefore, this is going to be a major USP, a major differentiator. Hence, we are committed in our software organization. About half of what we do in the Car.Software Org goes into automated driving, and we're going to build up more expertise there as well. This is about the big loop process. What that means is, how do we analyze camera images and then on that basis, establish a neural network that is self-learning. We believe this is a core competence. This we should have on our page. We also need a definition competence for hardware. What that means, the computer kernels that will be a hallmark of future vehicles, we should do that. This needs to be done here. 60% is a good target there. Not every single app needs to be developed ourselves. When we go towards system integration for brake or steering systems, we don't necessarily need to do that on our own. The core of the software must be our in-house competence. Thank you. We now have a question from Spain by Dani Cordero. Interesting question. He says, "Are plans for electrification in Spain, decarbonization, and also supporting the European Green Deal hinge on the decision by the European Union to provide support as well?" What does that mean in actual terms? Do we assume that Spain is going to see more subsidies than we would get in other plants and other development facilities for battery cell production? Do you expect more or different approaches in Spain than in the rest of Europe? Answer. The question here refers to the European funding rules that are depending on the regions. In highly developed regions, that development funding is rather low with small percent. If we cite a production for battery cell production, also vehicle production in Eastern Europe, we could claim up to 30% or 35% of public support, public grants. Tesla, that's in the public domain, has received an amount of billions of euros for the battery facility near Berlin. Our decision for Spain is a positive one. We already have two production plants for vehicles in Spain. We have components production in Spain as well. We believe that smaller vehicles like the A 0 class, the Polo or the T-Cross, could be really well industrialized in that country. Having said that, we need the same conditions that our competitors enjoy. I'm saying that this is a responsibility that the Spanish government has taken on board and that we're happy to support. Now we also need the commitment on the part of the European Union to make sure that we can also use the money, the funds from the EU Recovery Fund to convert our Martorell plant, where we expect EUR 2.4 billion to be the price tag. These are open questions as we speak, but I'm very confident and also the Spanish government is very committed. Europe, in fact, is very interested in Spain overcoming this crisis, and we'd do anything we can, and we're going to provide assistance to make sure that we continue to commit ourselves to our Spanish plans. Thank you. We have another question by Bill Boston. Follow-up question on lithium mining. Tesla has made an announcement that they're going to invest into lithium mining. Do you have similar plans? Is the question. Answer. We are talking to different lithium suppliers globally, including Spain. There are lithium deposits in Spain that are to be mined. Rest assured, we have a good understanding of where lithium mines are in this world, and we'd do anything we can to hedge our lithium supplies there. A number of MOUs have been signed with lithium manufacturers, producers in order to minimize the risk, and also we have delivery guarantees there in order to manage risks related to commodities. Thank you. We have Christoph Steitz again from Reuters coming into the portal. Mr. Diess, is the sheer size of Volkswagen an advantage or rather a disadvantage in your transition plans, or do you see drawbacks in the size because it will hamper the speed of your transformation? This is a valid point because size certainly is not an advantage for quick transformation. We've realized and understood now that it's actually a strenuous process to establish the software in the company and to have the right backbones in the company. It takes a lot of talking and discussion. At the end of the day, it turns out to be an advantage. Why? All of the new technologies that are forward-focused are scalable. Software is a case in point. Software is important, it's scalable. Hardware platforms are scalable, and they're crucially important for our future vehicle projects. Operating a global manufacturing network has clear advantages over what a startup would be able to do. It's both pros and cons. We must make sure that the pros dominate and, with our current size and reach, I think we've done a good business. We have seen a good start, good step of getting our software flying. The speed with which we proceed needs to be increased in some places, I would admit that. There's no reason whatsoever for us to say that our plan's not going to work. In the long term, we have a major advantage because a software stack is a software stack, is a software stack. No matter whether you run one million or 10 million or 15 million cars on that software stack. The world leader or the big global leaders always see significant economies of scale in this new industrial world. What I like to do is to compare ourselves to the smartphone industry. There's not 10 or 20 different drivetrain technologies or software versions. We will be one of the consolidators. We will be offering the platforms going forward to make sure that we can play a role in that consolidated industry and at the same time maintain our size and also increase it. I have Sebastian Schmid from Börsen-Zeitung, who has asked about the launch problems of a number of EVs. Launch ramp-up problems and delay of SOPs. Why was that, he asks. Is that production-related? Is it software-related? Was it semiconductor-related? Answer. What we have, and this is one of the reasons, is we have adopted a radical approach to our EVs with a minimized or reduced computer architecture. In the MEB, there are only three computer systems, corporate, if you will, from the group. This was a major challenge for our workforce to develop a new vehicle that is updated as it goes along. We've done a good job. Yes, there have been a few delays here and there, but we managed to get the vehicle started. We almost met our emission targets. The situation is getting better and better as we speak. ID. vehicles will be updated over the year, this year. People driving those vehicles will actually see that they get better and better. So I think it's been worthwhile. It was a tour de force, no doubt about it. Our teams have been fighting hard. Thomas Ulbrich, mind you, as well, sometimes spent days and nights in putting energy into that. It has been a forceful effort, but I think we can truly say that we're doing better this year than we have been in the last couple of years. Every new ramp-up and launch project will be better and better. The same way it has been harder for Tesla to scale up factories. For us, it has been just as difficult to get and perform on the level of good software management and software development, but I think we're getting better. There's one more thing, and if I may, I'd like to add a notion here. Normally, software is developed from premium products. Audi would be someone who does that. It's actually that reason why Audi is now in the lead of the car software organization. Software is always a differentiator in the premium segments, and it'll then usually trickle down into the volume segments. We couldn't do that for a number of reasons, the diesel issue and other Audi problems. Now Audi is back in the game and is contributing under that new leadership. We believe we'll see a major boost of that. There are software groups from Audi and Volkswagen that have already been merged. Therefore, I'm quite upbeat that we're getting better and better. Finally, this is in fact true also for many startups in the industry who obviously position themselves really well, but they shouldn't forget, this is not an easy way forward. Car making and automotive software is a very complex issue. Now I have a short follow-up by Mr. Menzel. Software is a case in point. Will or would Volkswagen also develop chips and chipsets for vehicles? I mean, not produce, but probably develop. That was his question. Answer? Yes, especially in terms of autonomous driving, the design of computers and computer elements is very important. We are not the only ones to realize that because we've always had our say in the future generation of Mobileye or NVIDIA image recognition chips. Maybe you're right. We have to bring our definition competence back into the company and consolidate it because our competitors are doing more, like Tesla. They're doing it really well, I should say. We have one more question, and this relates to the unified cell from Gerd Stegmaier from the Auto Motor und Sport. If the unified cell is only unified for the housing, where do the savings come from? The value added is in the chemistry, is it not? Now the answer. Yes, this is a very justified question. The main savings are in fact in the chemistry. The raw materials account for a large share of the cost, but there are also certain processes. If you have a look at what we said on Battery Day, there is a new manufacturing method that we're thinking about the production of cathodes. As you can see, this in the material as well. As a result, it won't only be material savings, but also process improvements, which will require lower investment and will thus mean that batteries can be produced and sold at a lower price. One thing that shouldn't be forgotten, however, is that if you take different types of chemistry and different cell formats, they all need to be tested, they all need to be approved, they need to be checked in the vehicle, and this can lead to increased costs. A unified cell constitutes good significant progress. As we said yesterday, it will lead to much more competitive pricing, which is why we are delighted that I think by 2025, it's clear what we want to do. Now for 2025 to 2030, I think we have clearly described what we want to do. Standardization, et cetera, this is what we want to achieve. I just got one more question from Lutz Heise from SWO. I think we actually answered this question already, he is asking about Porsche and a potential partial or full IPO spin-off of Porsche that was reported on in manager magazin in January. I can only repeat what I've already said. Of course, for us, Porsche is a jewel in the crown. Due to its strong earnings, Porsche is increasing in value. Another thing we can see is that Porsche is doing very well in the new world of electric vehicles. Look at the new Taycan, for example. Porsche has pursued a very ambitious, aggressive electrification strategy. We shouldn't forget, however, that the reason it does achieve these big margins is that we utilize the group backbone. Partially with Audi, and these Porsche vehicles are often produced in Volkswagen plants. We are very closely connected with Porsche. Porsche also makes a significant contribution to the group, not just cash flows, but other things as well. Another objective, and this is something that we're optimistic about, is that the transformation that lies ahead can be financed using the cash flows that we generate from our business. Which is why we don't see any course correction on that front. Thank you very much. Now I have one question from Zaban Balak from Controlling. You said that car software will become one of the biggest software companies in Europe. How are you confident that we will be able to get the best programmers in the world for Volkswagen? Well, now the answer, we hope that they will apply to us. I've often spoke to Mr. Hilgenberg, who is head of software for us. We have more than 500 software specialists who have been appointed. A number of them have come from Silicon Valley. A lot of them just find the project very exciting. Now it's the only software project in Europe which could have the ambition of setting global standards. What I'm trying to say is that in Europe, the premium industry, which is globally networked, we've got these competent suppliers, Bosch, Continental, Hella, and the other companies as well, which have a lot of expertise in other areas. If we can succeed in combining this effectively and being fast enough, then it will be possible to do a great service to Europe, because then this would be a software domain which needs to be competitive globally, and which can also attest to Europe being strong in the field of software. It's not the people who are the constraints. There are lots of people who are educated here at universities and who go to Silicon Valley. The question is, can we be fast enough in getting everything together that we need, getting the resources that we require? As you've seen, there are 15 different companies who are being integrated at the moment. It's important the integration proceeds quickly. It will be an interesting challenge, but it constitutes a huge opportunity for Volkswagen. Because we've got programmers who are working here, very passionate about their work. It's good for Germany, good for Europe, good for industry. Thank you very much. Now I have one more question from Jan Schreiber from the AFP. He is asking about planning in the electric entry model segment. He wants to know what is planned for the ID. vehicle. He wants to know what is planned below the ID. vehicle in the entry-level segment. Yes, I believe this is something that we announced in 2025. We would like to launch an entry-level platform for electric vehicles, which is derived from the MEB. The intention is, if everything goes well, it will begin in Spain and various group vehicles will be introduced. We believe that this will come at exactly the right point in time because we're electrifying from the top down. Premium, then the volume segment, and then the entry-level segment because it's the most cost-sensitive segment. By this point in time, when it comes to cell technology, we would have made significantly more progress and thus will be able to offer very attractive vehicles similar to the ID.3, but in the segment below it, up to around 4 meters or 4 meters 20. I think ID.3 is around Golf, and then beneath this, we've got the Polo, so it will be in the Polo segment. We've had a lot of experience with the MEB. Our expertise will be integrated into the development of the new entry-level model. Of course, the price segment is very low, but we are optimistic that we will succeed here, again, with scales and also with the technology that Volkswagen has. Okay, I have one more question from Carsten Steevens from the Börsen-Zeitung. He would like to ask about charges from the diesel crisis for 2021. Do we believe that it will continue to be an issue, that diesel costs will continue to be an issue in 2021? Frank Witter would like to answer the question. Special items of more than EUR 32 million have come about since the diesel crisis, which is a huge sum. You can have a look at our annual report here. I have clearly underlined that we've cleared up a lot of this, there are still some litigation risks which are not yet concluded. This could take a few years to conclude with these litigations. We haven't valued all diesel-related potential charges and set aside provisions for them, these are estimates based on the knowledge that we have now. When it comes to settlements, so the payments, as we call them, not necessarily special items as reported, we expect around EUR 2.5 billion in 2020, which is expected. We need to distinguish between what goes through the GuV and what the payments will be over the entire period of time. Yes, we believe that we probably got the worst of it behind us, but it has not come to an end. Okay, thank you very much. There are no more questions. I would just like to ask if there are any more questions. Otherwise, we will conclude the event. Let me just ask again. Are there any further questions? Mr. Rauwald from Bloomberg. Mr. Rauwald, please, from Bloomberg. We have a couple of audio problems. One thing at the end. When do you plan to achieve the margin target of 6% for Volkswagen? By 2023, that's the plan. Yeah, there's no reason to believe that we won't achieve it. Thank you very much. In that case, I would like to say thank you to Mr. Diess, Mr. Antlitz, and Mr. Witter. Thank you very much for answering the questions in the Q&A session. We will be available to you to answer your questions throughout the course of the day. On that note, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and most importantly, stay healthy. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.