TRATON

Traton Group Logo

TRATON AG (formerly Volkswagen Truck & Bus AG) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen AG and one of the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers with its MAN, Scania, and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus brands. In 2015, the Volkswagen Truck & Bus brands sold a total of around 180,000 vehicles. The range of products on offer includes light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trucks, as well as vans and buses. As of December 31, 2015, Volkswagen Truck & Bus employed around 76,000 people worldwide in its commercial vehicle brands. The Group aims to realign the transport system – with its products, its services, and as a partner to its customers. The registered office of the Company is in Braunschweig. The Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand, which is part of Volkswagen AG, is an associate partner of Volkswagen Truck & Bus.^[1]

History

In 1979, Volkswagen AG held a 67 percent share in Chrysler Motors do Brasil Ltda., a Brazilian commercial vehicle manufacturer. In 1980, Volkswagen acquired the remaining shares in Chrysler, renamed the company Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus Ltda., and assigned it to the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles division.

In the early 2000s, Volkswagen contributed 3 billion German marks to Swedish Scania AB, controlling 34 percent of the voting rights and holding 18.7 percent of the share capital. In 2006, MAN SE presented Volkswagen and the other Scania shareholders with a takeover offer in the amount of 9.6 billion euros. The takeover would have created the largest European commercial vehicle manufacturer. A few days later, Volkswagen rejected the offer, and broached the subject of a potential truck alliance for the first time. In October 2006, Volkswagen AG announced that it had acquired 15 percent of MAN SE, but did not intend to take over. On October 12, 2006, MAN SE increased its takeover bid to Scania by 400 million euros, bringing it to a total of 10 billion euros. At the same time, it bought additional shares, giving it control of about 14 percent of Scania AB. After the partners also rejected the revised offer, MAN withdrew the offer in January 2007 and began talks about a possible alliance between the three companies. To further consolidate this alliance, Volkswagen acquired another 14.9 percent of MAN. A mandatory offer would have applied starting from 30 percent only. Shortly afterwards, Volkswagen announced that it now held 35.3 percent of the Scania voting rights. Volkswagen acquired a further 30.62 percent of the voting rights from the Swedish investor AB and the Wallenberg family foundations (prominent Swedish family of industrialists) in March 2008. Volkswagen had already controlled this share in the past by means of an agreement with the existing shareholders.^[2]

In December 2008, Volkswagen AG sold the Brazilian subsidiary Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus Ltda. to MAN SE for 1.2 billion euros. The company was incorporated into MAN Latin America Ltda. under a new name, but still sells the majority of its heavy trucks and buses under the VW brand, along with MAN SE products. Volkswagen acquired further MAN SE shares at the beginning of May 2011 and was obliged to submit a takeover offer, which it did at the end of the same month. Volkswagen held the majority of voting rights at 55.9 percent at the end of the acceptance period. As part of further share purchases, Volkswagen announced voting rights of 75.03 percent on June 6, 2012. Due to the resulting statutory blocking minority of 25 percent, Volkswagen was given sole control of MAN SE. On April 16, 2013, Volkswagen AG applied for “Truck & Bus GmbH” to be entered into the commercial register of the city of Wolfsburg. As part of this new company, Volkswagen pooled its stake in MAN SE, with whom Truck & Bus GmbH signed a control and profit transfer agreement on June 6, 2013. Volkswagen AG held more than 89 percent of the Scania AB voting rights as a result of the shares of its subsidiary, MAN. In February 2014, Volkswagen issued a voluntary public takeover bid to the remaining shareholders of Scania. At the end of the acceptance period in June 2014, Volkswagen held 99.57 percent of the voting rights. Following the squeeze-out under Swedish law, Volkswagen AG is now the holder of 83 percent of the voting rights directly and another 17 percent via MAN SE.^[3]

At the beginning of July 2015, the shareholders' meeting of Truck & Bus GmbH decided to rename it Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH, a company based in Braunschweig. Andreas Renschler, responsible for the Commercial Vehicles division of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, became Managing Director. Martin Winterkorn was appointed from Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG to Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The shares in MAN and Scania were transferred to the renamed holding company. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles remained part of Volkswagen AG in legal terms, but is a partner of the new commercial vehicle network from an organizational and operational point of view.

On June 20 2018, it was announced that Volkswagen Truck & Bus was to be renamed TRATON GROUP, effective from the 3rd quarter of 2018.^[4]

On June 26 2018 Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH was transformed into a German stock corporation (Aktiengesellschaft, or 'AG' for short), becoming Volkswagen Truck & Bus AG.^[5]

Volkswagen Truck and Bus was renamed to TRATON AG. ^[6] Its CEO is Andreas Renschler. They used their new name at their IAA 2018 press-conference with their tagline "Transforming Transportation".^[7]

Corporate strategy

Volkswagen Truck & Bus has declared its goal of being the global champion of the industry for the next decade. According to the Company, this does not come down to just size – that is, pure sales figures. The aim is to lead the holding company to the top of the commercial vehicle industry in terms of profitability, innovation, and, above all, customer satisfaction. Important pillars of this strategy are the expansion of local market leadership and global expansion, as well as the creation of synergies through in-depth cooperation between the brands and a common culture within the Group. Bundling the commercial vehicle brands under one roof allows for a stronger focus on their specific concerns and therefore speeds up the decision- making process.^[8]

In the future, teams of MAN and Scania engineers will jointly develop the core components of the powertrain. This will create common platforms for engines, transmissions, axles, and exhaust aftertreatment systems, which can then be modified to suit the brand. The management of the cross-brand project groups will be taken over by one of the two companies. This lead engineering concept ensures that the requirements of all parties involved are taken into account, the brand's independence is maintained and, at the same time, responsibilities are clearly defined. Each brand takes a lead of its own: Scania is responsible for large engines with 13 liter-capacity, whereas MAN is in charge of smaller units with five- to nine-liter engines. The breakdown for exhaust systems and gearboxes is similar.^[9]

Global expansion has been driven by the strategic partnership with U.S. commercial vehicle maker Navistar International Corporation. Volkswagen Truck & Bus acquired a 16.6 percent stake in Navistar as part of a capital increase. Both companies entered into a strategic technology and supply cooperation initiative and also established a purchasing joint venture. With the completion of this transaction, Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH secured access to the important North American market, where the Group is not yet represented. The strategic technology and supply cooperation will make Volkswagen Truck & Bus one of Navistar's most important technology partners. The focus will be on common drive systems. The partnership will also include collaboration on many other aspects of future commercial vehicle development.^[10]

Corporate structure

Integration into the Volkswagen Group

Volkswagen Truck & Bus is part of the Commercial Vehicles division of Volkswagen AG. This division also includes the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Group brand, which is not a legal part of Volkswagen Truck & Bus, but is integrated as an associate partner from an organisational and operational perspective. Scania AB and MAN SE are the Company’s subsidiaries. Munich-based MAN SE is, in turn, the parent company of several other companies: MAN Truck & Bus AG and MAN Latin America Ltda. form the Commercial Vehicles business area, whereas MAN Diesel & Turbo and Renk AG make up the Power Engineering business area.

Volkswagen Truck & Bus brands include MAN, Scania, Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus, and RIO, with the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand as an associate partner.^[11]

Brands

MAN Truck & Bus

MAN Truck & Bus AG is the “full liner” within the Group. The brand offers medium- and heavy-duty trucks for long-haul and distribution transport, as well as for construction sites and special applications. In addition to urban, intercity, and touring coaches of the MAN and Neoplan brands, the TGE light transporter is expanding the range of models on offer. Some of the products are available with alternative fuels. There are also numerous services. From 2017, all trucks will be equipped with RIO digital solutions as standard. In 2015, MAN sold a total of around 79,000 vehicles, including 73,000 trucks and 6,000 buses. In total, the manufacturer has around 35,000 networked vehicles on the roads.^[12]

Scania

Scania AB makes trucks for long-distance and distribution traffic, construction sites, and special areas, including autonomous trucks for enclosed areas such as mines. City and intercity buses, and coaches complete the product portfolio. The vehicles are partly available with alternative fuels and electric drives. In addition to numerous services – especially in the field of digital networking – selected offers from RIO have been available since the spring of 2017. Scania has over 230,000 networked trucks on the roads. In 2015, the brand sold a total of 77,000 vehicles – 70,000 trucks and 7,000 buses.^[13]

Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus

MAN Latin America mainly operates under the Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus brand and specializes in the needs of developing markets. It offers light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trucks for long-distance and distribution transport, construction sites, and special areas. City and intercity buses and coaches are also available. Some of the products are available with alternative fuels. The services are tailored to special customer needs. In 2015, Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus sold a total of 24,000 vehicles, 20,000 trucks, and 5,000 buses.^[14]

RIO

RIO is the digital brand of Volkswagen Truck & Bus.^[15]

Management

The management team of Volkswagen Truck & Bus – known as the Truck Board – consists of the Company's management and other cross-divisional functions set up in a matrix organization. This allows the interests of the Group and the individual brands to be coordinated in an optimum way. The Managing Board of Volkswagen Truck & Bus is headed by Andreas Renschler, who is Chairman of the Commercial Vehicles division of Volkswagen AG, and four other managers: Antonio Roberto Cortes, Managing Director of MAN Latin America Ltda., Joachim Drees, Chairman of the Executive Board of MAN SE and MAN Truck & Bus AG, Henrik Henriksson, Chairman of Scania AB, and Matthias Gründler, responsible for Finance and Business Development. Anders Nielsen, responsible for Research and Development, Ulf Berkenhagen, in charge of Procurement, and Josef Schelchshorn, head of HR, have cross-sectional functions.^[16]

References