Last week the Volkswagen brand received the award “Most Innovative Volume Brand” from the Center of Automotive Management (CAM). The established industry award was presented at a gala in Frankfurt to Stefan Gies, Head of Passenger Car Chassis Development at Volkswagen. In addition, Volkswagen received two further awards as the most innovative brand in the categories “Interface & Connectivity” and “Autonomous Driving & Safety.
According to a study by CAM in cooperation with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), this year the Volkswagen brand was the most progressive volume brand once again. This meant that the carmaker from Wolfsburg was able to successfully defend its position from the previous year. For years, the study AutomotiveINNOVATIONS has identified the future trends and innovation profiles of different car brands based on technical vehicle innovations. In the official justification for this year’s award, CAM and PwC stated: “With 60 separate innovations Volkswagen is by far the most innovative volume brand. Highly rated features include Trailer Assist, which is available for the Golf and Tiguan for the first time, and also a worldwide innovation in the respective segments.”
The current CAM study also emphasises that the innovative strength of the Volkswagen brand lies in the category “Interface & Connectivity” among others and provides the following justification for this: “For the first time in this class gesture control is available for the infotainment systems of the Golf update, enabling intuitive operation. In addition, innovations such as the Doorbird app, where the car can connect with the home intercom system, led to the success of the Volkswagen brand in this category.”
According to the CAM study, the Volkswagen brand also confirmed its pioneering role in the field of “Autonomous Driving & Safety”. “With ‘Side Assist Plus’, the Tiguan is the first vehicle in its segment to feature an active assistance package that monitors the blind spot among other features. Furthermore, Rear Traffic Alert can alert the driver to approaching vehicles and also brake autonomously should the driver fail to react.”
The Center of Automotive Management in Bergisch-Gladbach (D) under the direction of Professor Stefan Bratzel is an independent scientific institute for empirical automotive and mobility research. It has conferred awards to the most innovative car manufacturers of the year for a number of years in cooperation with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Sixty global car brands were considered for this year’s analysis.
