Key R&D figures

In fiscal year 2017, we filed 6,566 (6,465) patent applications worldwide for employee inventions, around half of them in Germany. The fact that an increasing share of these patents is for cutting-edge fields impressively underscores our Company’s innovative power. These fields include driver assistance systems and automation, connectivity, alternative drive systems and lightweight construction.

The Automotive Division's total research and development costs in the reporting year were 3.9% lower than in the previous year; their percentage of the Automotive Division’s sales revenue – the R&D ratio – came to 6.7 (7.3)%. Along with new models, the main focus was on the electrification of our vehicle portfolio, a more efficient range of engines and digitalization. The capitalization ratio was 40.0 (42.1)%. Research and development expenditure recognized in profit or loss in accordance with IFRSs increased to €11.6 (11.5) billion.

As of December 31, 2017, our Research and Development departments – including the equity-accounted Chinese joint ventures – employed 49,316 people (+2.6%) Group-wide or 7.7% of the total headcount.