1Headquartered in Wolfsburg – Germany, Volkswagen Group is the second largestautomobile manufacturer in the world and was founded by the German government in 1937,with the objective of manufacturing a low-priced “people’s car” (The Editors of EncyclopediaBritannica, 2021). The group currently operates 120 production plants all throughout Europe,America, Asia, and Africa, with the alliance of numerous renowned brands such as Scania,Skoda, Man, Seat, Audi, Porsche, Ducati, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini (M. Hanno,2019). In mid-2015, Volkswagen briefly held the distinction of being the world’s largest carmanufacturer by volume after surpassing Toyota Motor Corporation. However, shortlythereafter, during the same year, the company faced a public relations crisis when the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that the manufacturer’s diesel-poweredcars contained a software that altered the vehicle’s performance in order to pass emissionstests. Volkswagen eventually admitted to installing the “defeat device,” and it had to recallover 10 million vehicles worldwide and had to encounter settlement costs of over $20 billion(The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2021).The 2018 strategy of the company, initially announced back in 2008, was to “positionitself as a leading global eco-friendly automobile manufacturer”. The focus was set towardsan environmentally friendly orientation and profitability of its vehicle projects so that theVolkswagen Group has the right products for success even in more challenging economicconditions (Volkswagen, 2011).For its “Together – Strategy 2025”, Volkswagen has brought forward two keyelements - launching over 30 fully electric new vehicles and introducing autonomous driving
