Volkswagen Group has acquired digital services company Diconium to strengthen and develop its global online sales platform.

The deal will boost VW’s development of online sales which will allow customers of all group brands to purchase and manage digital services and on demand functions for their connected vehicles in the future.

The new acquisition will also play a crucial role in connecting vehicles, customers and dealerships.

Diconium will be working with VW’s vehicle software division that is responsible for digital services for customers across the group’s brands like VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat.

The completion of the transaction for VW to acquire the remaining shares in Diconium  is still subject to approval by the anti-trust authorities.

VW Group had already announced the acquisition of 49% of the shares in Diconium in November 2018.

Teams from VW and diconium have already been working together at VW’s new We Campus in Berlin since July 2019. At this location, Volkswagen intends to gradually bring together about 900 specialists for the development of mobility and digital services.

Functions earmarked for new digital services include media streaming in the car, automatic payment for refueling, battery charging and parking, as well as software updates for vehicles.

In addition, the online sales platform will be linked to the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud, which is also being developed by VW’s software division.

Christian Senger, VW brand board member responsible for digital car and services and chief executive of the Car.Software organisation, said: “The VW Group is committed to offering our customers a steadily growing range of innovative digital added value services which they can use conveniently and safely both directly in their cars and via their mobile devices.

“The technological basis will be the uniform online sales platform which we are developing for all our brands within the Car.Software organisation. The proven expert knowledge, experience and digital culture of our colleagues from Diconium will give us a significant boost in this area.“