Group Management Report

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Key R&D figures

In fiscal year 2021, we filed 5,638 (6,795) 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, automation and connectivity, as well as alternative drive systems.

The Automotive Division’s total research and development costs in the reporting period amounted to €15.6 (13.9) billion and were 12.2 % higher than in the previous year; their percentage of the Automotive Division’s sales revenue – the R&D ratio – remained unchanged at 7.6 (7.6) %. In addition to new models, our activities focused above all on the electrification of our vehicle portfolio, digitalization, new technologies and our modular toolkits and platforms. The capitalization ratio was 50.3 (46.6) %. Research and development expenditure recognized in profit or loss in accordance with the IFRSs increased to €12.8 (12.1) billion.

As of December 31, 2021, our Research and Development departments – including the equity-accounted Chinese joint ventures – employed 53,046 people (+0.6 %) Group-wide, corresponding to 7.9 % of the total workforce.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COSTS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE DIVISION

€ million

 

2021

 

2020

 

 

 

 

 

Total research and development costs

 

15,583

 

13,885

of which capitalized development costs

 

7,843

 

6,473

Capitalization ratio in %

 

50.3

 

46.6

Amortization of capitalized development costs

 

5,050

 

4,644

Research and development costs recognized in profit or loss

 

12,790

 

12,056

 

 

 

 

 

Sales revenue

 

206,237

 

182,106

Total research and development costs

 

15,583

 

13,885

R&D ratio

 

7.6

 

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.