On 1 July 2025, the Traton Group, under Volkswagen’s control, launched a unified Research and Development organisation known as Group R&D. This brings together around 9,000 employees from the R&D departments of Scania, Man, International, and Volkswagen Truck & Bus, all now working under a single management structure led by Niklas Klingenberg, a member of the Group’s Executive Board responsible for this area.
This new structure complements the work of around 3,000 colleagues who will continue their activities within the individual brands’ own research departments. According to the Group, the synergy between Group R&D and the Brand Identity Development programme is designed to combine the efficiency of centralisation with respect for each brand’s specific characteristics, ensuring continuity in developing innovations aligned with their individual identities.
Klingenberg stated that this new phase of close research collaboration will make Traton faster and more efficient, enabling the development of targeted solutions and reducing time-to-market. Eliminating duplication of efforts will go hand in hand with greater ability to tailor the offering to the diverse needs of customers. “Every single engineer and talent within our organisation is essential to ensuring a solid future for the Traton Group. Our success depends on their expertise,” he said.
At the heart of this reorganisation is a broader and more strategic use of the Traton Modular System, a development framework based on modular components capable of serving multiple brands and adapting to various performance levels. The aim is to build a flexible technological platform that can respond more effectively to market demand while optimising resources and development time.
Traton is also restructuring its global financial services and announced in July 2025 that it has completed the implementation of its integrated platform across fourteen countries. The Group describes this as a key strategic step in strengthening its financing capabilities, which now rely on a shared infrastructure designed to provide faster, more consistent and customer-oriented financial support across all brands in its portfolio. The completion of this project marks the end of a multi-year journey to create a structure dedicated solely to financial services.
Currently operational in South Africa, Sweden, Spain, Poland, Germany, Austria, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Brazil, Italy, Mexico and Portugal, the new setup allows each brand to benefit from professional financial support that is unified in systems and processes but locally accountable. With this transition, Traton moves away from previous contractual models based on Volkswagen Financial Services and Volkswagen Bank.
The new structure is not a final destination but a foundation for future development. Traton Financial Services will continue its growth path alongside the Group’s transformation, expanding its geographical presence, strengthening its sustainable financing strategy and introducing new service models aligned with the evolving transport and logistics sector. Identified areas of development already include innovation in electric vehicle financing, the introduction of usage-based offerings and the adoption of vehicle-as-a-service models, which will provide customers with greater flexibility and access to integrated solutions.
