The Volkswagen Group’s Car.Software organization is strengthening its Board of Management. With effect from January 1, 2020, Björn Goerke is to be the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Car.Software organization. To date, Goerke has been Chief Technology Officer and President SAP Cloud Platform with the software company SAP. In his new function, he is to report to Christian Senger, Volkswagen brand Board of Management Member with responsibility for Digital Car & Services and CEO of the Car.Software Organization.
With the structure of its Board of Management, consisting of Christian Senger, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Frank Rösler, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Björn Goerke as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), the Car.Software organization is oriented towards the software sector. In future, the CTO of the Car.Software organization is to define a cross-brand standard for the software architecture of the connected vehicle and digital ecosystems. In addition, development work within the Car.Software organization is to be harmonized and grouped together in a consolidated portfolio of software products and technologies.
“In the Car.Software organization, we are committed to combining technological skills with cross-industry expertise in software development,” says Christian Senger. “In Björn Goerke, we are gaining a Chief Technology Officer with comprehensive experience in the management of software architectures in a global company. Together we want to make the Car.Software organization a software power house within the Volkswagen Group with the best digital experts, international positioning and clear delivery responsibility for our brands.”
Björn Goerke holds a degree in computer science and started his career in 1988 as a software developer in the technology field with SAP in Walldorf. Following two years as a software developer for server technology in Palo Alto, California, Goerke returned in 1998 to SAP headquarters in Walldorf, where he held various responsible positions from 2002 to 2017. Most recently, Goerke was Global CTO with SAP in Palo Alto responsible for the areas of technology strategy, governance and architecture, security, integration, open source and developer community.
As President SAP Cloud Platform, he was also responsible for SAP’s innovation platform in the cloud as an independent product.
Car.Software organization to become independent business unit on January 1, 2020
By 2025, the Volkswagen Group intends to boost the in-house share of software development for vehicles from the present figure of less than 10 percent to over 60 percent. The Car.Software organization will play a key role in these efforts. From January 1, 2020, the organization is to operate as an independent business unit within the Group. In the long term, the objective is to continue the development of the Car.Software organization into a software brand within the Group with its own brand presentation.
In future, the Car.Software organization is to develop software in five domains on a cross-brand basis. These include development work for a uniform vehicle operating system “vw.os” for all Group vehicles and linking to the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud, a standardized infotainment platform, all assistance systems up to highly automated driving and parking in customer’s vehicles, software functions for linking powertrains, chassis and charging technology, as well as ecosystems for all mobility services and digital business models of the brands.
Up to 2025, the Car.Software organization intends to invest more than €7 billion in its activities and projects. Thanks to the standardized software packages, Volkswagen will generate considerable economies of scale within the Group and significantly reduce the software costs per vehicle for all Group brands.