A very good morning, good evening, or good afternoon to everyone from wherever you have dialed in. Welcome to our investor and analyst conference call following yesterday's announcement of the Supervisory Board approval of the Group Target Picture 2030. With me today are Oliver Blume, our CEO, and Arno Antlitz, our CFO, COO. Our agenda is straightforward. Oli will guide you through the agreement and the core elements of the Group Target Picture 2030, followed by a Q&A session. With that, Oli, I hand it over to you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Rolf, and hello to everyone on the call. Thanks for joining. Let's come directly to our update. As you know, over the past years, Volkswagen Group has made significant progress across products like in design concepts or quality technologies, software, ADAS, or regions like China, and, of course, our performance programs to strengthen our financial portfolio. At the same time, the environment around us has fundamentally changed, and as a result, measures and structures that were sufficient in the past are no longer sufficient today. This is not only about Volkswagen Group, this is affecting the whole industry. But at Volkswagen Group, we decided to act timely and comprehensively. To master the challenges in our environment and the industrial transformation, we must make Volkswagen Group more competitive, faster, simpler, and ultimately, we must make Volkswagen Group stronger for the long term. There's no alternative, and there's no time to waste. This exactly what the Volkswagen Group Target Picture 2030 is about. Our Group Target Picture is not a simple cost reduction program. It's far more than that. It's our plan for the future, a comprehensive transformation plan for the Volkswagen Group. Our plan combines 12 initiatives across three core areas: technology, performance, and steering. Together, these initiatives address all key dimensions of our future competitiveness, from products and technology platforms to operational excellence and organizational effectiveness, governance, portfolio management, and regional growth opportunities. This is what we as Management Board presented to the Supervisory Board yesterday. Following intense but constructive decisions, the Supervisor Board approved the Group Target Picture 2030, and most importantly, with no dissenting votes. This is a strong sign for the future of Volkswagen Group. The changes in our industry require decisive action, and they require a comprehensive transformation of our Group. Between the Management Board and the Supervisory Board, there's a shared understanding of the challenges ahead, and there's a shared commitment to addressing them. Our common objective is clear: to make Volkswagen Group and its brands stronger, more competitive, more effective, and better positioned for the future. Implementation will now be driven jointly by the Executive Board, our brands, our subsidiaries, and our employee representatives. Because lasting transformation can only be achieved together. A Group Target Picture is built around a clear financial framework. Our planning assumptions reflect the realities in our market environment. An annual sales volume of 9 million vehicles is a premise for our future structures and cost base. Without additional far-reaching measures, such a market environment in the long run would not allow us to generate sufficient returns. Our ambition is clear. By 2030, we target an operating margin of 8%-10%, assuming flat volumes and revenues. This is equivalent to an operating profit of about EUR 31 billion in the midpoint as a result of our measures. We would expect overhead costs to be reduced to a level of EUR 37 billion, down from EUR 48 billion in 2025, the current planning round, and equal to 12% of automotive revenues. Investment spending will become significantly more focused and disciplined. We agree on an investment plan totaling EUR 135 billion for the five-year period from 2027 to 2031. Another step down by about EUR 30 billion compared to the current planning round. This framework creates the foundation for sustainable value creation and long-term financial strength. Let me now quickly guide you through the core elements of our future plan. A key element is significantly more focused product portfolio and a consolidated technology footprint. By 2035, we will have streamlined our model portfolio by around 50% and reduced component variety by 75%. At the same time, Volkswagen Group will have systematically tailored its platforms, electric electronic architectures, ADAS and software, and concentrated them to the needs of each Western and Eastern Hemisphere. This is not a story about doing less. It's a story about focusing on what matters most. The prioritized models aim to excel in design and technology and win in the markets. By concentrating resources on fewer, stronger products, we will increase scale, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and accelerate innovation. The result will be better products for our customers, stronger brands, and sustainable value creation. Moving on to our production network. Our markets have changed structurally. This is true in particular for our home market, Europe. Our objective is straightforward: establishing a production structure that is competitive on a sustainable basis. As a consequence, excess capacity at Volkswagen Group of more than 500,000 vehicles must be addressed. This is acknowledged by the supervisory board. Based on current cost structures, a competitive future production allocation for the Emden, Zwickau, Hanover, and Neckarsulm plants cannot currently be secured on a staggered basis from 2031 to 2034. Within the next 6- 12 months, the plants have the opportunity to develop sustainable and competitive concepts and cost structures. There's no restricted to the Emden, Zwickau, Hanover, and Neckarsulm plants, but a task for the whole production network. In parallel and in addition, alternative uses for these four plants are being assessed. Operational excellence is one of our key value creation levers within the Group Target Picture. The objective is not cost reduction for its own sake. Our objective is to build a faster, leaner, and more competitive Volkswagen Group. Across R&D, procurement, production, quality, sales, and admin functions, we see significant opportunities to simplify processes and improve speed and competitiveness. As part of the plan, we will also establish leaner leadership structures with clearer accountability and shorter decision-making paths. A group-wide performance and incentive system for executives will further strengthen accountability, both for individual results and for the collective performance of the group. Beyond the programs already underway, including 50,000 positions in Germany and an additional about 20,000 globally, what we agreed already in 2024, further adjustments to the group's global workforce capacity will be required to achieve the objectives of a transformation and safeguard Volkswagen's long-term competitiveness. According to the analysis underlying the Future Plan 2030, a group-wide workforce adjustment of approximately 50,000 positions will be necessary and implemented, including a reduction of management roles by 1/4. Our transformation also requires a sharper way of steering the group. Volkswagen's future organization must be faster, simpler, and more accountable. We therefore intend to strengthen clear responsibilities, reduce organizational complexity, and accelerate decision-making. To achieve this, the Supervisory Board has provided the executive board with a mandate to develop a model for an evolved decision-making and leaner group structure. The portfolio of shareholdings and businesses will be assessed even more vigorously. We will retain only those with a clear strategic and financial contribution to the core automotive business. Non-strategic activities will be divested or realigned. The Group Target Picture also defines a clear regional strategy. Europe is our home market, and our ambition is to strengthen our leadership position. In China, our objective is equally clear. We want to remain the number one foreign automotive manufacturer. To achieve this, we consistently In China, For China strategy and increasingly leveraging China as a technology and export hub. North America, we are resetting the business for profitable growth. This includes a stronger localization strategy, a sharper product focus, and a more targeted regional approach. We will present the details in due course. While executing differs by region, the principle remains the same everywhere. Local markets require local solutions. At the same time, global scale must be leveraged wherever it creates competitive advantage. This chart at the end summarizes the Group Target Picture 2030 across all operational and financial categories. From products and technologies over operational excellence to group governance. It highlights the major milestones and KPIs we aim to achieve. In short, 9% margin, EUR 31 billion operating profit with 9 million vehicles sold, and with an investment budget of EUR 135 billion. By 2030, Volkswagen Group aims to be the leading global automotive tech driver, and a consequent implementation of the Group Target Picture will be the key enabler. We have unique strengths to achieve this ambition: iconic brands that excite, competence that leads, and scale that wins. The Group Target Picture transforms these strengths into a clear roadmap for action. We are focusing on our automotive core, we are simplifying structures, we are accelerating decision-making, and we are investing in the technologies and products that will define the future of mobility. Ladies and gentlemen, the agreement and the approval of the Future Plan 2030 by the supervisory board mark a decisive step in the transformation of Volkswagen Group. It sends an important signal. We are taking responsibility for the future of our group, for our people, for our partners, and for industrial value creation worldwide. But let me be very clear. This is only the beginning. The real work starts now. On the other side, we can build on a strong track record. Think of our comprehensive plan presented in June 2023 in our capital markets day, our top 10 programs implemented since then, and not to forget, the December 2024 agreements of VW, Audi, Porsche, and CARIAD. With yesterday's resolution, the Future Plan 2030 moves into execution. Measures already underway will be pursued with full consistency. The next steps will be initiated immediately. Where agreements with employee representatives are required, we will involve the responsible bodies and enter to discussions promptly, responsibly. The executive board will overtake responsibility for implementation with clear governance, clear accountability, and the necessary pace. Supervisory board will remain closely involved and will be regularly updated on progress. Together, we will make Volkswagen Group stronger, more competitive, and better positioned for long-term success. With this, thank you very much, and I hand back over to Rolf again. Thank you, Oli. In all my youthful recklessness, I forgot about to point out the disclaimer on page two. Please read it carefully to yourself as it governs today's presentation. Talking about staying lean and efficient organization, we were just reminding ourselves that such a call in the past would have at least required a back office of 30 people. Today, it's only Oli, Arno, Lars, and myself. So another proof point actually that we can learn and that we can act efficiently. With that, reminding you, if you want to raise a question, please press star followed by one and one, and then you can qualify yourself for the queue here in the Q&A. I see the first question coming from Tim Rokossa from Deutsche Bank. Tim, please unmute yourself and start with the first question. Well, thank you very much, Oli, Arno, Rolf, and Lars then. I think we can forgive you forgetting that slide, Rolf. We're all a bit excited today. Let me start with a bit of a statement, please. I want to really congratulate you for getting this approved. I do certainly think that there wasn't a single market participant who believed that this is the base case yesterday. From what I can judge and hear from investors, it's the right thing to do for Volkswagen and for the German auto industry. So congratulations, Oli, Arno, and everyone on your team involved, but also particularly on the other powerful stakeholders who are not speaking on the call today, who understand what is stake here and what needs to be done. Now, my two questions, please. Oli, I think probably to you, the biggest question is whether the supervisors board has now approved something that is actual change or merely kicked off a process for further discussions and potentially problems down the road. Investors will want to understand which elements of the plan are now effectively locked in and which still require further negotiations. If you could clarify that, please. Arno, probably to you, can you provide us with as many numbers as you can at this point to help us fill our spreadsheets and educate investors on the value of your equity? Obviously, it's the beginning of a negotiation. I'm well aware you can't give us definitive numbers, but any sort of rough estimate of what this may cost you, and then also obviously when we think about more details on the bridge from today's profitability to the 2030 ambition would be really interesting. Thank you. Good afternoon, Tim, thanks for your questions. May I start with your first one? Overall, everything is locked in and Supervisory board joined our proposal. We already presented in July, now with even more detail. That's about a complete agreement to our proposals and approaches, especially on the KPIs coming from the profit margin, then the SCA of 135 up to the additional workforce reduction. Also the activities we are driving now with our plans to reduce furthermore 500,000 units per year as capacity in Europe as a following step, everything what we have done during the last two years. The only thing where we got a mandate and haven't taken a final decision is in terms of the group structure. This is clear, this requires activities now on text level, legal levels and financials. This has to be worked out up to the next months and we will come back in 2027 with a proposal for the structure. Important there is that we have the clear mandate from the supervisory board to do so. Summing up, everything is locked into and now it's up to us to realize. The majority of the program is responsibility of the board, and there we have taken already important decisions like the product portfolio, then technologies and so on. Now we are focusing on the points which we agreed together with also the workers representatives. Also thanks Tim, for your words from my side. Perhaps if you talk about the program first and foremost, there are elements that are not quantified but they are at least as important as the quantified ones. For example taking out complexity, taking out layers become faster, become leaner and other elements are clear improvement which Oliver just mentioned under the topic of operational excellence. Under these operation excellent topics some we need to compensate for potentially negative developments we expect towards 2030 and some will be clear improvements versus today. Having said that I would like to give you really a very rough estimate how you could think about potential very rough EBIT bridge. Rolf I think we meet each other in Paris? October 12th. On October 12th and we are really happy to give a little bit more details. On a very rough basis, if you start today at about 4.5% margin, that's EUR 320 billion turnover. Let's start with EUR 50 billion and we want to explain a bridge to EUR 30 billion. So 4.5% - 9% as we said. We are conservative on the volume or I would say more robust, not like as in the past where we planned for volume growth which for certain reasons didn't materialize. So volume stable. We expect some pressure on pricing and on the other hand, part of the improvement program will be incentive optimization based on AI and improvements in the area of sales and others to compensate for that pressure as good as possible. Then obviously, we have some deterioration of mix due to the ramp up of the BEVs. We want to go to roughly 40% BEV mix in 2030 Europe from today roughly 20% - 50%. Although the margins of the BEVs become better over time, they are still margin dilutive. Here we want to compensate from some elements of the program, material cost improvement, quality improvement, obviously material cost improvement without deteriorating the product substance of the cars. Then comes overhead costs. Overhead costs should be a real improvement versus today. We go from 16% to 12% in terms of sales which is basically driven by the reduction of people in that area, about roughly 50,000 worldwide, half of them in Germany, the other one outside Germany. Last element, let's not forget today we have some loss making units which we are expecting significant positive contributions in the future. For example, Scout. We have ramp-up costs there. CARIAD still negative, battery still negative and we expect them to turn at least positive towards 2030 which should bring another 1 percentage points - 2 percentage points. That is basically the bridge from today to 2030 to the 9%. Thank you very much. Thank you, Tim. Next question comes from Patrick Hummel from UBS. Patrick, please unmute yourself and go ahead. Thank you very much, Rolf. Hi everybody, and of course also congrats. Well done from my side. I was certainly amongst those who didn't expect such a comprehensive agreement right in the first meeting, so well done. Oli, in the Q2 earnings call, I asked you about the EU and PHEV tariffs. You obviously produced a lot of headlines that probably raised a sense of urgency in Brussels and elsewhere in Europe, about measures to protect the European industry. I'm just curious, in your really high-level thoughts about the meetings you have or will have in the coming months, what we can realistically expect out of Brussels and national governments in Europe that would also back up your restructuring plan because if the headwinds of the Chinese OEMs keep intensifying fast, your pressure on the top line might just be way bigger and we will never get even close to the 9% margin. Because obviously, even flat sales is quite a punchy assumption to take if you look at the breathtaking speed of market share gains by the Chinese. Any color on that greatly appreciated. The second one would be for Arno. Just thinking about the charges arising from this exercise. First, you're going to have that 50,000 headcount reduction in overhead that's gonna come at a cost. I'm pretty sure you're not going to give me a number, but am I right in understanding that if and when you take a decision on the future of the plants that are in question, that would be a second wave of restructuring potentially required and a second wave of cash out? Just to conceptually understand what we can expect by when. How much more time do you have to make a decision on those plans? Thank you. Yeah, Patrick, let me start with your first question. There I think we, especially as the biggest company in Europe, play an important role, also to achieve better environment solutions coming from the politics. Let me start with Germany. There, I'm personally in close contact with the Chancellor and his team to think about and decide what has to be done and everything we announce now, also situation, plants in Germany. I would like to lead this more to a German discussion, a German industry discussion, what has to be done. When we talk about cost reductions, we have three levels. The first level is our homework. It's efficiency, productivity. We have to do workforce reduction, what we have decided right now. Next level is what we have to negotiate with our labor unions, but also with IG Metall, to tackle labor costs. Yeah. What we have on the tariff level there. The third level is what has to be done on a governmental level. That's what we will deal with now, to bring this to a conclusion. There I'm completely in line, also with Lower Saxony, as part of our supervisory board. Now, to touch these points, what's necessary for Germany and also other companies at the end will benefit. I'm also in contact with my colleagues from the other OEMs or with suppliers. That's a German level we have to do. We see ourselves there as a main driver, also for others. In Europe, also, we aim for a more European-focused industry policy, which starts with a Made in Europe approach, with an obligation to bring investments to Europe. Its advantage at the end to act in the market. This is favorable for us with a strong European footprint. It is about a clever tax policy. For example, this is already implemented for electric vehicles. Plug-in hybrids are still without taxes for the Chinese. You can read this clearly, the market share. Chinese plug-in hybrids have already in Europe over 30%. It has to be done. The next point is on regulations, CO2. There we are also in good talks to achieve a leveraging for 2028 to 2030, 2032, as we agreed at the end for the period 2025 to 2027. Yeah. So many topics to do, different levels, Germany and Europe. Then I hand it over to Arno. Hello Patrick. As you expected, it's really too early to give you a specific number there. Obviously, it depends on the specific decisions unit per unit and really on the specific measures. Let's start with the current program, Volkswagen AG, the 35,000, and also that's the 50,000 in Germany from the first agreement until June 2026. We achieved 17,000 and also the path to the 50,000. These effects will still come in the next years and will have a positive contribution. The cost incurred with that, mostly based off early retirement programs, are already included in our outlook. Just to remind you, it's about EUR 500 million a year in Volkswagen AG alone, we assume for these early retirement programs. They are part of the outlook and basically also part of the bridge already. If you talk the next, let's say, 50,000, as I said, 50% will be roughly in Germany. The other half will be abroad. As you know, Germany, there are several elements, several instruments. Some are more expensive than others. Early Retirement Programs are not as expensive as severance packages. Also abroad, it is normally not as expensive as in Germany due to its headcount. It really depends on that. In terms of the plan, we said currently have no allocation in the planning for these four plants, but we still look in parallel on alternative measures or alternative uses to use them. This is also too early then to give you a figure there because depending on potential future uses of these plans, we can also significantly reduce the potential one-off. Yeah, I do not want to disappoint you, but as you said, it is too early to give you concrete figure now. But on the other hand, you have some examples in the past like Brussels or others, so perhaps you could- Am I right in assuming, Arno, that you cannot wait till 2031 till basically the product roll offs begin to take a decision on those plans? That would happen earlier, I guess, much earlier. We need decisions on these plans earlier. For the time being, we have no allocation. We work on different scenarios, but as you said, no? If you want to have then additional uses, for example, like the discussion we have on Osnabrück, of course, we have to start early. This is also good news. We are discussing these topics early, so we have a lot of time to find alternative solutions. Thanks to both of you. Thank you, Patrick. We continue with Horst Schneider from Bank of America. Horst. Yo. Thanks for taking my questions, and happy weekend or happy Friday. I think you are happy. I have got a few questions. Maybe first of all on what that implies now for 2026. I think your 2026 guidance looks tight at the moment. I think you also said that it's more likely that you achieve the lower end of the guidance range. First of all, since we are now here on this call, can you make any statement on this guidance? Anything changed over summer? It is more maybe a trading update. Then also on the implications of the restructuring. I understand that you cannot give us any number right now, but of course it matters if you book the costs in 2026 or not, especially in the context of the Everllence disposal. In other words, you maybe want to use the evidence proceeds to pay these restructuring costs. If that does not happen, it could imply then that your dividend is a lot higher. Whatever you can say on that on 2026 would be helpful. The second question that I have that is on your volume assumption, because you say volume assumption, you took a cautious approach, conservative approach. You planned this flat sales. When I look at my forecast, I have got 1 million units less for 2030, so I am forecasting 8 million units because I expect a bigger decline in China. So, what will be the consequence of that? If it is 8 million instead of 9 million, that would force you to trigger more restructuring, or since it is just China, it is not expensive restructuring. So what if you do not sell 9 million units? What it would imply going forward? Also with regard to the press, that is my last question. We have seen a lot of press rumors flying around the last few days. Is it true that the SSP platform gets again delayed? Handelsblatt has written that it is now 2029 or mid-2029, which would imply that Audi gets all the great vehicles only 1.5 years later. Maybe you can also clean up with that rumor. Thank you. Yeah, Horst, may I start? Happy Friday to you. To your question on volume. We distinguish in between China and rest of the world. The China decline view we see already this year is at equity. So it does not affect directly our financial figures slightly indirectly, but the main part is at equity. We see up to 2030 a stable situation in Europe. Also with our product offensive we are implementing and then opportunities also with cost reduction. Our guideline not to increase pricing. So that is stable and we see growth opportunities in North America. Growth opportunities in terms of export from China also. We think with this 9 million, it is more an overall globally orientation, but we have to go into details over the regions which affect directly our balance sheet. So, we think with this planning, our cost structure is robust and feasible. Now to Arno. Oliver, just on China, since you say it does not matter that much because it is JV, but in China, for China, these models are owned by the 100% own JV by Volkswagen. So it is fully consolidated in the future or not? You are right. But that is only a part or a smaller part of our business in China beside of our JVs. Okay. But you have to take into account the opportunities we do have now as maybe the only international player having this China footprint. We are able to act like a Chinese OEM, and that is what we see now. We expect this year over 10 million exported cars from China. Now after our ramp-ups, we are in the same condition like all the Chinese OEMs with the same cost base, with the technology profile. This gives us a completely different opportunity. Thinking, for example, to the global south Australia where the Chinese are already very successful, Southeast Asia also enter into India. India has protected against the Chinese. It is kind of hedging. Then Africa and South America and also in Europe. Some models could fit into Europe as well. That is a unique opportunity in terms of China. That is true. Thank you. Yeah. Also in terms of 2026, yesterday's meeting was about the Group Target Picture 2030, so hopefully understanding that I. We are not talking about today. Also, as said in terms of individual measures and accounting recognition, it is really too early to add what Oliver said. Mm-hmm. We distinguish In China, For China and the rest of the world, because the topic of capacity and overcapacity, how robust it is of our footprint, it really depends on whether we plan for the right volume in Europe and specifically, yes, in South America, much more robust than in the past. Yes, China also matters. We have our JV in Anhui with four models, but the majority is still in our two major JVs. Yeah, that is a topic there. I think Oliver, there was that third question in terms of SSP platform. Yes. Thank you. I at least do not know any delay. The point said that our SSP platform, we are making very good progress, is directly linked to our activities at Rivian joint venture that we are running on time. SSP platform is running on time. I can nothing say about. The plan is also made up on the, from a perspective that SSP comes in 2028. There is no delay model launches. You also say today that they should ramp up on time, as you always said, right? Yeah. In the first product Audi, on Rivian software architecture, we are developing together in this joint venture. Mm-hmm. Okay. That is great. Thank you. Happy weekend again. Thank you, Horst. The next one in line is Harald Hendrikse from Citigroup. Harald, please go ahead. Yeah, morning Rolf and morning everyone. Thanks so much for taking my question. Again, as per my note this morning, congratulations. I am 100% sure that you are managing this more proactively than I have seen at Volkswagen for 30 years. Both for you, but also some credit for the unions and even the politicians, which, I mean, I am very loathe to give them any credit, but the fact that this has gone through unanimously is huge for the industry, for you, and to be honest, for Germany. Two questions. One, how conservative Oli is this planned? Can you talk a little bit more detail here? Obviously, we are super concerned about China market share losses. How much market share gains by the Chinese are you assuming? How much of a loss of underlying market share for Volkswagen are you assuming in the plan in terms of total volumes? Obviously we understand what you are doing with capacity. Pricing. What assumptions are you making on a five-year pricing view for Europe? All of those questions, raw material prices are obviously going to go up, so we know what all the headwinds are. We do not know 100% clear what you have actually assumed in the plan, and I think that is really important. A conservative plan is obviously worth a lot more money than a less conservative one. Secondly, on the cash side, last year the cash surprise on the upside, you are talking about a EUR 6 billion annual reduction in CapEx and R&D. The EBIT plan is obviously huge. I am sure nobody is pricing that in today, but if we add all of this up, we are going to potentially add up to some really big free cash flow numbers. On the cash flow, maybe Arno, you can talk about this. What is the target cash flow if you do achieve the 2030 targets? Secondly, selling all the assets that you have, we have had this conversation in the past. You have just raised EUR 7 billion from Everllence. How much money do you think you can raise from asset sales to further improve the net liquidity and net cash position in the business to provide even more support to the downside? Thank you. Yeah. Let me provide some key figures as we talked before, starting with the volume, 9 million globally. This assumes about 2.7 million in China without the export opportunities and 6.4 million in rest of the world. Our cost structures, we will bring to a break-even point, which is aligned to around 8 million cars. Distinguishing the different regions of the world, as I explained before. Other framework conditions for our planning are stable pricing without increasing pricing. We are calculating with a BEV growth to around 40% share in 2030 in total deliveries and in Europe over 50%. Other criteria that we have in our planning up to now, no change in the CO2 regulation. We will achieve what I answered before. This could be even positive effect. Also no change in tariff regime, especially in the U.S. Another point linked to our cost portfolio is to invest ratio of sales revenue to fall to 9%. Yeah. All these effects bring us to a break-even situation up to 8 million cars around the world, but focusing especially on the rest of the world, which is linked directly to our business case. Handing over to Arno. In terms of cash flow, when you remember back then in Hockenheim when we presented our first capital markets day, we said look there are two streams of improvement. First margin, and the second is cash conversion rate, which we define basically percentage of cash we convert from EBIT. This is really something we still stick to that. We made a strategic plan back then. We said we came from more than 14%, 13% and go then to 11% and then finally 9% in 2030 on the CapEx combined. That should lead us to almost doubling the cash conversion rate to 60%. If you do the math it's Don't get me wrong. It's still four years out, but if you take the target of EUR 30 billion of EBIT, 9% over the sales, you deduct our FinCo because that's not automotive, and you take the 60% cash conversion rate. It's roughly like [EUR 15 million]. This is what we aim for, and we are on the path. You need basically the two levers: improve margin, this was more or less the EBIT work I just said, and then obviously cash flow and the net cash flow is driven by upfront investments where we committed to that 9% towards 2030, but it's much more than that. It sounds easy. It's more like a huge comprehensive program in terms of more discipline in the Group. Shortening the model range, taking out duplication most engines on the technology side. Last but not least, it's also cultural change. We really achieved a cultural change on the cash flow as well. Two years ago, we included in the bonus scheme for all the managers, not only EBIT, but cash flow. Yes, it worked out quite well last year, and we had also until the first six months pretty decent cash flows. These are the elements we want to deliver on towards 2030. I think your second question was what to do with them and how to use these proceeds? There are always three elements, first and foremost in different times one element is strengthening the balance sheet. We see some competitors they have a much stronger balance sheet in terms of net liquidity on hand divided by sales. We have EUR 34 billion, which is really solid, but others are easily stronger on that, and that obviously also translates into the rating, which is important for our FinCo. The second element, we always look on the hybrid bonds, what to do with that. Third, obviously, we have our dividend policy with a payout of more than 30%. These are the elements, and we will look on the way from here to 2030 how to use these three elements. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you, Harald. And maybe one word on the stable pricing. Yes, of course, we know that is a bold assumption, but it meant a little bit nuanced. Of course, we expect prices to be under pressure, but what we aim for is obviously to work against that with intelligently steering our tacticals we use. We are not ignorant of the fact that in particular in the volume business, there will be some pressure on the pricing side. And with that, we continue in the Q&A with Tom Narayan from Royal Bank of Canada. Tom, please go ahead. Yes, thanks for taking my question. I echo the congratulations. The first one of the comments on the model portfolio, the reduction, I think by 50%, complexity by 75% by 2035. I know you're still figuring this out, but where could this be specifically? Is it specific brands? North America, I think you talked about focusing on the most profitable segments. Is this like a mix thing, like SUVs, for example, or does this mean leaning on certain brands? Alternative uses for the plants. I know you said you haven't figured this out yet. Could this include collaborating with the Chinese OEMs for the use of these plants? Lastly, focus on core automotive. We do know automakers, notably Tesla, are investing heavily in non-automotive core endeavors. We know you're doing Robotaxi, but does this mean you would not consider things like defense, energy storage, humanoid robotics? I know those things may sound science fiction-y, but EUR 1.6 trillion of market cap suggests potentially otherwise. Yeah, those are my questions. Thank you. Yeah, Tom, let me start with your question on our product portfolio and to explain all of you how we have handled this and all the decisions are, or most of the decisions are already taken. First of all, we defined some golden rules for our brand. What product portfolio should fit for the brand. Then we define clearly, in which segments the brand have to act, also including lighthouse projects for our brands. And then we decided where to cut derivatives, where today, we have substitution in some segments to streamline our product portfolio. This is already done, and we know brand by brand clearly, where to go. The same as options we are offering, and there are key examples we have in brands, sometimes like Audi, more than 1,000 variants of seats. And we pushed this down to lower than 100. And there are hundreds or thousands of examples what we are tackling right now. The majority is kicked off, but still work to do. Then coming to the regions, also with a very focused product portfolio for the regions. And there we checked the profit pools. Especially, you touched North America, important profit pools are still not played by Volkswagen Group, especially rugged SUVs and pickups. And you know about the activities in Scout, but more than this. And also there we see opportunity for Audi and for Volkswagen especially, to bring cars on ladder frames, very tailor-made for the U.S., as concept, but also at the end being produced in the U.S. And that's our more regional approach, which we started In China, For China, but also now more focused in North America for North America because that's an important growth market for us. Talking about collaboration with Chinese OEM, my answer is we are in Chinese OEM, and so we don't need any collaboration. Now, what we have done, of course, with XPENG in terms of software, but this was only the foundation for our own electric electronic platform. We developed 100% by our own and which we launched already at the end of last year. And for the future, we are a Chinese OEM. Then you touched at the end of your question, growth opportunities. And of course, this is one initiative in our target plan for the future. And there we have three different elements. One element is regional growth, North America, then export from China, and also opportunities in India. Second, are services for our customers, like insurance business, also fleet business play a role there after sales, and things like this. And also to improve the loyalty to our dealer network, which we drive also very close together with our financial services. And the third pillar is about growing industries. There, we have great opportunities to go into energy storages. We have already implemented in serious production and working first energy storage systems. And this is closely linked to our PowerCo initiatives, where we produce our own battery cells. Now, that's a great opportunity for us. Then, we will have a defense business. But we are doing now first, for example, the plant in Osnabrück, but with more opportunities. You touched robots There we have unique opportunities because we have all the use cases in our company, then bring this to other companies as well in scaling the business. Other opportunities are circular economy which we already kicked off, which will start in October. There we have legal requirements on the one side, but on the other side also opportunities for other companies. Other opportunities are semiconductors also where we see opportunities. Only giving you some examples what we are doing in terms of growth opportunities. Thanks for that. Just a clarification, the alternative uses for the plants, that's where I was talking about the Chinese collaboration, the potential for collaborating in Europe and your the plants at alternative use. Is that something you would consider? There's no need because we have Chinese products and when we see the opportunity first as export, but later maybe as localization, we can take our own product. Just remember, up till the end of next year, we will launch around 30 new products in China, especially, on the NEV level. There are some interesting ones, we haven't got in Europe. Now we won't cannibalize European products, but there are segments which are not played by ourselves in Europe. These products, we will check first as an export and then for localization. Therefore there's no need to collaboration with Chinese players. Thank you. Arno here. I would like to follow up on what Oliver just said to give you an example and how that translates also into a chance on the mix because we said mix is negative obviously, product mix due to the BEVs. For example, if you look at U.S. currently, huge volume is Jetta and Taos, which is an entry-level small SUV. You could imagine you don't need much fantasy that the margins are not great bringing them from Mexico to U.S. under the current tariff scheme. We looked at, as Oliver said, at the profit pools and we bring the Scout, which is from outside in perspective one of the most promising segment. Also for brand Volkswagen, it's too early to make an announcement. Also in Brand Volkswagen, we move into the segments which are more promising in terms of margin. Let's not forget Audi. Audi has a huge product momentum in terms of Q7, Q8, Q9, which were also be targeted to the U.S. market. Yes, from today's perspective, some tariffs, but still this promising margin. There are a lot of elements that are very concrete to behind that initiative targeting more attractive segments. Understood. Thank you, Arno. We continue in the Q&A queue with Christian Frenes from Goldman Sachs. Christian, please go ahead. You hear me? Hello? Yes, we can hear you. Great. Thanks very much for taking my question and congratulations to Oli, Arno, and Rolf and Lars for this important announcement. Just a couple of clean up questions on my part. First of all, your press release talks about 12 initiatives. I only counted nine bullet points. Are some of those initiatives bundled together in the bullet points or are we missing three initiatives? No. You have to take the overall target picture and the financials. This is important. Then you come to 12. Yep. Okay. Then second question just on China very quickly. Thanks for giving us the color. The 9 million units includes 2.7 million units in China. Can you outline what you think the market share would be in your China ICE and China BEV markets respectively, just broadly in 2030? What is the sort of underlying assumption? Yeah. It is about 17. We needed to check the number. Just ballpark is fine, yeah. On 70% NEVs and 30% ICE. You know about the high dynamic we are faced right now in China. Yeah. That has to be adapted, like all the others do. From the today's perspective, this could be a realistic number and our product portfolio is prepared on this. We have also the flexibility in terms of ICE hybrids and range extenders in our portfolio beside of the clear BEVs. That's what we developed during the last two or three years and now ramping up the whole product portfolio. Thank you very much, Oli. Just to clarify this point, it seems very clear from the title, but I just want to make sure. The 50,000 of job reductions that is being talked about, is that pre-2030? Can you just confirm that? Yeah. By 2030- Yeah we reduce 50,000 more and this is especially in admin functions management. As we will reduce 5,500 managers and that's 1/4 of our management profile. 1,100 we have already done this year. That shows that we haven't waited for overall decisions. Everything we could do by our own is decided and in implementation. We can say that the half of this 50,000 are in Germany and the other half internationally. This comes to our reduction. We are doing already the 50,000 from our agreements from 2024 in Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, and CARIAD in Germany, plus 20,000 globally. The first step to have the figures clear, 70,000 first agreement and then 50,000 more up to the end of 2030. Also having the savings as clear, and this is without any plant closures. But the plant closures are later than 2030. Therefore, I think with this number, 120,000 globally, this is a concrete number. Okay, thank you for that clarification. Just one more on the production structure. You mentioned that the IG Metall negotiations on tariff structure are ongoing. Should we expect a decision that coincides with the June 2027 date that was mentioned for the production structure? I would imagine that they are related. What we are doing, all activities, we are driving about 170 companies. From Monday on, the teams sit together and then we make a specific plan for each of our companies. The biggest ones you know, Volkswagen, Audi. Porsche has done already some decisions, but overall decisions could be added to the Porsche agreement. We opened this in the decision. So we will have specific solutions, but also general solutions. What I explained before in these three levels, our own homework. Then, things labor cost, we deal with our labor unions and IG Metall. Then overall, generally, what could be decided with the government. On these three levels, we are working and we expect also labor cost reductions. Oh. Okay, thank you. additional costs. Just one more. Just, what happens if in June 2027, no alternative uses are found for the factories? The task is to build now an optimized European production footprint, and Germany is one part of this. We have a clear cost target, which has to be reduced in Germany. Where we can't find a solution for any plant, we have to close a plant. But to close a plant is a last decision-making point because it's most cost effective point and therefore, I always talk about intelligent solutions. There, first of all, focuses on improved competitiveness. We already achieved last year a reduction of our plant costs of over 20%, which we haven't achieved the 20 years before. That's a great achievement, but not enough, and we will continue to do so. First, competitiveness. Competitiveness at the end serves also for other industrial solutions. Then, we kick off, what Arno mentioned, other industrial solutions for our plants. Then, we check opportunities maybe with Chinese products from Volkswagen Group, we can bring over. At the end, we built this European production footprint profile. But the goal at the end is very clear, to furthermore reduce 500,000 units a year to adapt our production profile to the market demands. On the other side, to reduce the cost gap of EUR 1.5 billion. That's our target. The last decision would be a planned closure, but if there's no other option, we will do it. That is very clear. Thanks for elaborating on all of those questions. I had one more quick one, which is the group structure one. Modern group governance and standard tax practice was mentioned in that bullet point. I am just wondering if you could elaborate on that. That is my final question. Thank you. Yeah. There we have different points. There are some process and steering topics we are up to implement, then to reduce our reporting structures and all the rules we do have between supervisory board and the management boards. We have a lot of topics to make it leaner, more efficient, and quicker. Also, compared on benchmark level. The bigger one is to order the structure of the bigger companies like Volkswagen, our business or our component business. There we got the mandate to work it out and there we have a lot of aspects in terms of taxes, legal requirements or financial requirements. It will take us around a year and we will come back with a concrete detailed concept to the site supervisory board. But having clear in mind what we want to do, a more efficient structure which we can drive with more transparency. This has to be decided at the end by the supervisory board, but in 2027. Thank you. Christian, for all transparency, you have the 12 initiatives on slide four, and what you were likely referring to was slide 12 where there is an excerpt of these 12 initiatives as a summary slide for the operational and financial categories. Hope that helps. Sure. Thank you. Okay. Very good. We continue with Daniel Schwarz from Metzler. Daniel. Thank you very much. The question I discussed most today was why did the unions agree on this? The management got its way on most matters. There seems to be no guarantee to the Works Council, not even concessions on the dividend side. In the last few weeks, unions made clear that they disagree with your assessment, or maybe not even with your assessment, but with the measures you were proposing. Maybe can you share what was important for the unions in the negotiations? Related to that, is a potential carve-out of Volkswagen Brand and the components off the table, or could this still come back on the agenda in a new structure? My second question is, there is this three-page draft resolution or [Non-English content] that is in the media today that mentions that EUR 4.8 billion cost improvement is coming from deconsolidation. Just for my understanding, does it mean you are selling or closing companies that are today EUR 4.8 billion loss-making? Can you confirm that? My last question is, you mentioned the importance of the credit rating for FinCo. I assume that means financial services. That is definitely not one of the 600 - 700 companies you are looking at for potential separation from Volkswagen, that is always part of the automotive core business. Is that right? Hi, Daniel. We would not comment on what has been or might have been published in the media, what you call [Non-English content]. I ask therefore your understanding and hand over for answering the other questions to Oli and to Arno. What should have driven our Workers' Council to agree. We have had intense, but at the other side also constructive discussions. On the one hand side, they have seen our results from the H1 this year, where you can see, compared to the competition, our improvement. Especially in the automotive part of our business. This result of our progress from the last years. There you can see it very clearly on the other side. Also, our Workers' Council is aware the current framework conditions, geopolitical crisis, trade barriers, regulations, market disruptions, and everything we have to spend in the transformation. Therefore, I think at the end, our Group Target Picture 2030, has got a very professional structure. It has got very profound details. At the end, the arguments we presented were winning. Our Workers' Council has understood that also they have to take over responsibility for the future of our company. Positive is that we have a strong base. We have everything in our hands, but now we have to make the decisions for future robust company. There is no time to wait, and therefore, I am very happy that we were able to convince them to agree. About carve-out, there the decision we have taken, it is a mandate for the management board to work on a concept to present this concept in 2027 because there are a lot of details behind, and so we are not able to decide it directly with all these tax, legal, and financial implications. But the mandate is there and we are up to start. Okay, take the last one. Concerning our FinCo, the Volkswagen Financial Services, we see the Volkswagen Financial Services as an integral part of the Group going forward. Even more, we see it as a strength we have, that we can rely on the products like leasing, financing going forward. That doesn't mean that our FinCo needs to also improve, become leaner, become more efficient. Also in terms of focusing on the core. We started in the FinCo already. We had units that dealt with charging, others with payment, micropayments, which were not the core. So FinCo is the core, but the program has equivalent elements on the FinCo side to become there also linear and more focused. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Daniel. We continue with José Asumendi from JPMorgan. José, welcome. Thank you, Rolf. Many congratulations to the team for the agreement presented. Just two questions, please. Arno, can you elaborate a bit more on balance sheet net liquidity, whichever metric you want to look at it, maybe net cash flow or net financial position to sales as a ratio or liquidity in general? I'm trying to understand ultimately, the minimum liquidity required and how do we think about the restructuring cash outflows maybe in the next two or three years? I know it's difficult to quantify, but we're getting a lot of questions on the balance sheet, on liquidity and then on the magnitude of structuring cash outflows for the next years. Also on dividend, despite all the necessary work easily doing in the next year, the dividend policy remains unchanged. And then second, Oli, please if you could comment on, we're seeing a lot of announcements around different plants in Europe. Announcements around the brands like SEAT or the plant in Bratislava, the consequences of moving production out of Bratislava for Porsche, for the Volkswagen Group, Audi. And I guess it's not easy just to pinpoint which actions specifically you want to take, but when should we expect, at least directionally, to see an acceleration of the measures being taken? Is it as early as 2026 or do you think it's more of a 2027 that we will see some of these industrial actions be taken in 2027 first? José, thanks for your question. I made some comments on that element already. I fully understand that there's a lot of interest in these topics, but I cannot be more concrete because we just don't have concrete decisions basically on certain decisions where we have restructuring measures. We can only comment on them once we took the decision and we book the measures. On net liquidity, I basically gave you the path into the future. We want to strengthen net liquidity by much stronger net cash flow. That stronger net cash flow with the two elements increase the margin to the 9% and then basically optimize on the CapEx combined and so increase cash conversion rate. On the dividend, we have our dividend policy. There are a lot of elements. You named Everllence. We have potential restructuring. It's really also the dividend for next year, we will decide next year once we release the full year results. José, I really ask for understanding that this is where we currently stand and I can give you more color than I did. Basic principle is clear. We are fully committed to deliver on the program, deliver on the margin to make the group more robust. One element of robustness is the balance sheet, as I said. But we also have a look onto other elements like our shareholders and also, we look on the hybrids. José, coming to your second question about our production footprint. First of all, I don't care about the media and the majority of the articles are speculations and wrong information and may be interest driven. What we have published is to clarify our production footprint in terms of competitiveness. That's the headline of everything. All of our European plants got the same chance to get there. We are pushing competitiveness. That's important. Also the German plant and at the end, Bratislava is an important plant with a very good cost level. It will play a role in our production footprint for sure in the future. We will publish this in 2027 step by step, when we will have taken the decisions in our option room. We are already started to build. In terms of SEAT as a company, we will modify SEAT S.A. On the other side, what is also clear that we have a certain product portfolio with SEAT joining up to 2030. On the other side, we are very happy about the development with CUPRA. More attractive, higher profit margins and our focus for the future will lie on CUPRA. Modify the company structure of sales to be leaner, and then more and more focused on where we have from the best profit pools. Thank you very much. That was great. Thank you, José. We have two remaining questions here in the queue, and we continue with Mike Tyndall from HSBC. Mike, please unmute yourself and go ahead. Afternoon, gentlemen. Thanks for taking the questions. Two, if you don't mind, and I apologize in advance, slightly challenge questions. Just to understand a bit more about what you're thinking. If I think about flat volumes on 50% fewer nameplates, my maths is saying that that means significant growth for the remaining models, the ones that will actually survive. Have I got that right? What will drive growth for those particular nameplates? Then the second question, I don't know how to articulate this in a very nice way, but this is not the first time we've heard about too many steering wheels and too many options. I wonder if you go back to the culture change that you talked about with regards to cash flow. How do you get a culture change in terms of complexity? Because it feels like, rightly, you've identified complexity as a problem, you're addressing it, but there does tend to be this relapse after a certain period of time. I wonder how you stop that happening going forward. Thanks. Mike, good afternoon. In terms of our volumes first of all, on the one hand side, our cost structure is focused on this volume model we already talked about. On the other side, we will have two different views on this. We have a very ambitious sales volume planning, and this is independent from our cost structure. Our main goal is to bring down our breakeven points. Therefore, it's important to deal this with a more conservative sale stage planning. Growth opportunities, we see especially in North America. You see growth opportunities with export from China. We are also tackling India. These are the main areas. In other regions like Europe, we want to stay stable. Important is once again, two different layers and perspectives. One is ambition sales planning, and on the other side, our cost structure in terms of improving our break-even situation. In terms of options, of course, this is a cultural change, and we have already implemented. On the one hand side is more a strategic approach for our engineering departments. On the one hand side, reduce massively the manpower of our engineering departments, making them leaner. One point, is there a one-for-all approach? We already started and have a lot of fields there where we develop an in-one area for all brands in the Group. This is benefiting from our scale opportunities. A cultural change, this was important to change. We have done this with a board we have never had before. It's a technology board on top level, where we met during the last month weekly or every second week to take decisions beside of our normal meeting structure. This was important to take quick decisions and to take some besides of all the existing meeting structures and complex engineering organization on small circle. Once having taken the decisions, the organizations will follow. Now we are on the point, we will do or continue with these meetings some months, but then we will go back to the main meeting structure, but now with a decision-making concept and structure, which is completely different than we have done in the past. Thank you so much. Mike, you challenged us on the models, and I would like to give you an example which I just used in a current presentation. Look, if you look at the past, I am sure you know our models. An SUV is a very important segment in Europe. In the past, Volkswagen had the Tiguan. Then we added the Tiguan Allspace. Currently, if you look at the segment, we have the Tiguan, the Tayron, the ID.4 and the ID.5. Audi Q3 Sportback in the past. Now Q3 Sportback, Q4 e-tron, Q4 e-tron Sportback. There are not so many additional customers. So we are really confident. With targeted models that are really perfectly targeted to the segment groups and differentiated within the group, we can address this segment with significantly less models and be even more successful because they are more targeted. Less overlap. I didn't even talk to Škoda and SEAT about SEAT and Škoda. Also taking out complexity means a better scale, potentially also better material cost because it gets scaled at the suppliers, and the cars have then a better cost base and then we potentially be even more successful. This is one example why we are convinced that this strategy will work. Got it. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Very good. There are now two additional questioners. The next one is Michael Punzet from DZ Bank. Michael, please go ahead. Yes, Michael Punzet. Good afternoon. I have some questions regarding Traton. If I take into account your numbers, the numbers you gave us, EUR 31 billion in EBIT and 9% margin, which implies a revenues level of EUR 340 million - EUR 350 million, which implies for me that Traton is still on a full consolidated level part of your company. Maybe you can explain a bit what is the rationale behind that, because I see only a limited synergy potential between trucks and cars. In past, you said, when I remember correctly, that you stick for 75% stake in Traton to secure the rating of Traton. Is that true? Is that still true until 2030? Thank you. No, you are quite right. As part of our Group Target Picture 2030, Traton is part of the group. Not with the same participation like today, but we always said we want to stay a responsible shareholder. This is basically a potential of that we go down to 75%. That is one share. This is what is currently reflected in the target picture. So with 75%, Traton would be still fully consolidated, and this is reflected in our whole target picture with 10% margin. Okay. Thank you, Michael. Now the very last one we have in the queue is Gianmarco from Neuberger. Gianmarco, please go ahead. Gianmarco, we cannot hear you. Sorry, can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Okay. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Question on profitability improvement as rating agencies, in particular S&P, are looking to see an improvement in profitability, potentially already in the next 12 - 18 months. What you can say about the improvements you can achieve based on the agreed plan into the next 12 - 18 months, which would be the easiest wins, and if you can quantify some uplift. On the other side of the equation, the restructuring charges. Can you provide any indication whether the bulk of the restructurings will be likely booked already this year, so will affect this year balance sheet unless the next, or it is too early to say? Because, of course, this would be relevant also for rating agencies and the assessment of profitability improvement into next year. The other question is just a clarification on the potential carve-out assessment you are mandated to do. Is this mostly on components or there are other parts of the business? I didn't catch that. Thank you very much. Gianmarco, obviously, it depends on the kind of material, on the time of cost. The material cost will be more gradually, the bigger contributions more coming later. For example, it depends on battery, on chemistry, but also on the changes of the cars. Others depend on when we get the agreements and move on the structuring. Now, for example, our retirement program is basically an element rather linear year -per -year. We moved back the Golf to Mexico, which is part of the old program, which is more like a step down in terms of cost. I would say what we could agree on, this takes now a little bit too much time. We could give a little bit more color on that in October. And obviously for 2027, we need to wait until we are at the end of the year and give you then the concrete guidance for 2027. But we can give a little bit more color on the bridge I just discussed half hour ago, which effects would materialize in which degree when. For example, we talked about Scout and CARIAD improvement versus negative position today. Let's agree that we give a little bit more color in Paris. And Gianmarco, coming to your second question about our mandate, this is focusing the group structure general and in concrete main issues are VW cars together with the Brand Group Core and our component business together with PowerCo. But when there will rise other opportunities, we will touch them also. And first of all, this important to check the legal, the tax and the financial structure behind. That's by far complex and this has to worked out. Yeah. But the mandate is more general. But we have some areas of interest there. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks, Gianmarco. There is no one left in the queue, so we are almost on time, only five minutes late. Thanks for the very vivid discussion. Thank you, Oli and Arno, actually for answering all the questions here in the conference call. The next occasion to meet with us is, as Arno has mentioned several times, around the Paris Motor Show, which will be on October 12. So we will have Arno and Oli around and Thomas Schäfer, and there will be the opportunity to drive the ID. 2all family cars in Paris. So a very exciting event. We look very much forward to meeting you there, and if you have not registered, please use the opportunity and do that in due time. That brings us now to say thank you again. Please follow up with our team here in Wolfsburg if there is anything unanswered, and we wish you a very good Friday afternoon and a very good weekend. Thank you. Goodbye to all of you, and see you soon. Thanks very much for your time.