Risks and opportunities

In this section, we outline the main risks and opportunities arising in our business activities. In order to provide a better overview, we have grouped the risks and opportunities into categories. At the beginning of each risk category, we state the most significant risks in order of their importance as identified using the risk score from the QRP. We then describe the individual risks in no particular order. Unless explicitly mentioned, there were no material changes to the specific risks and opportunities compared with the previous year even though the weighting of individual risks has changed.

The assessment of the Volkswagen Group’s risk categories and the reports to the Board of Management include amongst other items all risks reported to the Group Risk Management department with a risk score of 20 or more for the units included from the QRP. The risk categories are plotted based on the average scores. In the reporting year, no risks with such scores were reported for the “Financial risks” and “Risks from mergers & acquisitions and/or other strategic partnerships/investments” risk categories.

We use analyses of the competition and the competitive environment in addition to market studies to identify not only risks but also opportunities that have a positive impact on the design of our products, the efficiency with which they are produced, their success in the market and our cost structure. Where they can be assessed, risks and opportunities that we expect to occur are already reflected in our medium-term planning and our forecast. The following therefore reports on internal and external developments as risks and opportunities that, based on existing information, may result in a negative or positive deviation from our forecast or targets.

AVERAGE SCORES OF THE RISK CATEGORIES