Volkswagen AG does not currently purchase nickel directly, but obtains this battery raw material indirectly from our suppliers in the form of EV batteries. Our battery suppliers, in turn, source nickel through their own business processes and the various intermediate products.

Our relationships with business partners and suppliers are always confidential. We ask for your understanding that we do not comment on business relationships.

Nickel is one of the 18 so-called high-risk commodities that we have recorded as part of our risk management system "RMDDMS". For the battery raw materials lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, we carry out "mappings" of the upstream supply chain, among other things, to identify the origin of the raw materials. In this mapping, we identified Indonesia, among others, as one of the countries of origin from which we source nickel indirectly via several product precursors and suppliers.

We take our responsibility regarding the upstream supply chains very seriously. Therefore we are convinced that constructive criticism leads to higher standards and general transparency, from which all parties involved will only benefit. We investigate new findings, follow up on critiques and allegations immediately as soon as they reach us.

To document our efforts to create more transparency, we have been publishing our own voluntary Responsible Raw Materials Report since 2021. In this year’s "Responsible Raw Materials Report", you can find out more about nickel on page 32.