Group Management Report

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Key R&D figures

In fiscal year 2022, we filed 5,305 (5,638) patent applications worldwide for employee inventions, the majority of them in Germany. The fact that an ever-increasing share of these patents is for important cutting-edge fields underscores our Company’s innovative power. These fields include driver assistance systems and automation, digitalization, connectivity, as well as alternative drive systems.

The Automotive Division’s total research and development costs in the reporting period amounted to €18.9 (15.6) billion and were 21.3% higher than in the previous year; their percentage of the Automotive Division’s sales revenue – the R&D ratio – was 8.1 (7.6)%. In addition to new models, our activities focused above all on the electrification of our vehicle portfolio, digitalization, new technologies and enhancements of our modular and all-electric toolkits and platforms. The capitalization ratio was 51.4 (50.3)%. Research and development expenditure recognized in profit or loss in accordance with the IFRSs increased to €14.3 (12.8) billion.

As of December 31, 2022, our Research and Development departments – including the equity-accounted Chinese joint ventures – employed 58,912 people (+11.1%) Group-wide, corresponding to 8.7% of the total workforce. The year-on-year increase is partly due to a change in the data collection methodology.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COSTS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE DIVISION

€ million

 

2022

 

2021

 

 

 

 

 

Total research and development costs

 

18,908

 

15,583

of which capitalized development costs

 

9,723

 

7,843

Capitalization ratio in %

 

51.4

 

50.3

Amortization of capitalized development costs

 

5,144

 

5,050

Research and development costs recognized in profit or loss

 

14,329

 

12,790

 

 

 

 

 

Sales revenue

 

232,385

 

206,237

Total research and development costs

 

18,908

 

15,583

R&D ratio

 

8.1

 

7.6

Capitalization ratio
The capitalization ratio is defined as the ratio of capitalized development costs to total research and development costs in the Automotive Division. It shows the proportion of primary research and development costs subject to capitalization.