VW expects to raise productivity to more than 6% in 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen's <VOWG_p.DE> VW brand said on Thursday it had increased productivity, cut costs and was on course to achieving carbon cutting targets at the German carmaker's factories.

"Our strategy is working. We will improve our productivity by over six percent and lower production costs per vehicle for the first time since 2013," VW's board member for production and logistics, Andreas Tostmann, said in a statement.

The productivity target had been five percent, he added.

VW said that cost cuts that factories had been making in 2019 in personnel, ancillary procurement and general overhead costs amounted to 500 million euros (444 million pounds).

This would contribute to targeted cost cuts in these areas totalling 2 billion euros between 2019 and 2023, it said.

VW said that carbon dioxide emissions per vehicle had been reduced by 22% between 2015 and the first half of 2019. The carmaker has a target of halving CO2 emissions by 2025 compared with the figure for 2015.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Alexander Smith)