Car.Software Organisation is now CARIAD

“After a six-month start-up phase, the company has only been operative since the middle of last year. In the first steps, we set up the work organization and our company structure. With the new name CARIAD and corporate form of Societas Europaea, we’ve reached the next milestone in our corporate development. In 2021, operationalization is at the forefront. We’re establishing ourselves as a strong and reliable software and technology partner for the automotive brands of the Volkswagen Group, as well as an attractive, European employer for automotive software and engineering talent from all over the world,” said Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO of CARIAD.

Car, I Am Digital

The automotive industry is in disruption. As a company, CARIAD is playing a part in multiple large trends at the same time: electrification, automation and digitalization. The new name builds on changing customer needs. Automotive customers are demanding more comfort, more safety, more sustainability and more connectivity. With its software platforms and digital features, CARIAD is developing solutions and products that will turn the car into a smart companion to accompany customers into the future with continuous updates and new digital features, even years later. The new company name reflects this zeitgeist: ‘Car, I Am Digital’. The brand profile can be found on its new website (https://cariad.technology).

SE: Co-determination in a digital age

With the choice to change to the corporate form of Societas Europaea, CARIAD is adjusting co-determination in the company to the digital age. The corporate form of SE allows for co-determination to be more strongly coordinated at supervisory board and works council levels.

Unlike what is normally the case, the framework for co-determination provided by the SE form at CARIAD is not restricted. The aim is to coordinate modern co-determination, tailored to software development, at the supervisory board and works council levels. With CARIAD SE, an entity has emerged that can dedicate itself completely to product development. In the coming months, tailored processes are due to be introduced within the scope of co-determination, which will allow development teams to completely unfold in a modern environment and set up agile forms of work. A key component of this is the company’s own collective agreement, which was concluded in February.

For CARIAD, 2021 will be the year of operationalization

Currently, around 4,000 employees are working at CARIAD on the digital transformation of the car at sites all over Germany. Following the founding of the company and its setup last year, the focus in 2021 is on operationalization. In addition to developing feature updates over the lifecycle of vehicles based on the MEB modular electric drive platform, the Group’s volume platform, CARIAD is working intensively on the software and technology platform for Premium Platform Electric (PPE). The first vehicles based on PPE will be the electric Porsche Macan and Audi Q6 e-tron. At the core of CARIAD is the development of the unified and scalable software and technology platform E³ 2.0 for all Group brands. E³ stands for ‘end to end electronics architecture’. The new software and technology platform is built from scratch and will be used first at the end of 2024 in Artemis, the lighthouse project of Audi. As of 2026, E³ 2.0 is due to be scaled by the Volkswagen brand with Trinity in the volume segment.