BERLIN -- Volkswagen Group's VW brand said on Thursday it had increased productivity, cut costs and was on course to achieving carbon-cutting targets at the automaker's factories.
"Our strategy is working. We will improve our productivity by over 6 percent and lower production costs per vehicle for the first time since 2013," VW's board member for production and logistics, Andreas Tostmann, said.
The productivity target previously had been 5 percent, he said.
VW said that cost cuts that factories had been making in 2019 in personnel, ancillary procurement and general overhead costs amounted to 500 million euros ($547 million).
This would contribute to targeted cost cuts in these areas totaling 2 billion euros between 2019 and 2023, the automaker said.
VW said that carbon dioxide emissions per vehicle had been reduced by 22 percent between 2015 and the first half of 2019.
The automaker has a target of halving CO2 emissions by 2025 compared with the figure for 2015.