VW, Microsoft Expand Cloud Partnership Beyond Europe

Volkswagen AG and Microsoft Corp. are expanding the cloud-computing partnership they announced last September to China and North America.

The new plan was outlined by VW CEO Herbert Diess and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at a joint event in Berlin. The executives say Microsoft’s Azure-based connected vehicle services will help transform VW into a “software-driven mobility provider” whose services include car-sharing, the internet-of-things and various third-party telematics services and apps.

VW expects more than 5 million new Volkswagen-badged vehicles per year will be fully connected with IoT cloud capability by 2020. The brand previously said it intends to generate €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in annual revenue by 2025 from the global wireless services network it is building.