What is Volkswagen's S-Rating, and how does it affect an Indian supplier?
The S-Rating is how Volkswagen checks that a direct supplier meets its sustainability requirements. Since the 2025 revision it is either positive or negative. A negative rating means evidence is missing or a requirement is breached, and in principle it makes you ineligible for new contracts.
Who gets rated, and when
Volkswagen has run the S-Rating across the Group since 2019. It applies to direct suppliers with a high sustainability risk and a matching company size. Volkswagen first sorts suppliers into low, medium or high risk on human rights and environmental factors. A low-risk supplier whose site sits in a higher-risk country is moved up to medium.
The rating is checked each time a new contract is due to be awarded, so it is a question at every sourcing round, not a one-off. Separately, before you quote you must confirm Volkswagen's Code of Conduct for Business Partners, and confirm it again after twelve months if you want to keep quoting.
How the rating is built
- You fill a self-assessment questionnaire recording your documented processes, management systems and supporting documents.
- An external provider validates your answers and adjusts for country risk, then sends you recommendations.
- Some suppliers are also audited by a service provider Volkswagen selects.
- An audit score under 100% means a binding action plan, carried out within a fixed time and checked by desktop audit.
- A score under 50%, or any zero-tolerance nonconformity, means a second audit once the actions are done.
Negative usually means missing paper
Volkswagen reported 16,218 direct suppliers with an S-Rating in 2025, and 16,178 of them positive. A negative rating is rare, and by Volkswagen's own definition it covers both a breach and evidence not yet submitted. If yours comes back negative, first check whether a document was simply never uploaded.
The stakes are rising: Volkswagen's target was 85% of procurement volume from relevant direct suppliers with a positive rating for 2025 (it reported 87%), and over 95% by 2040.
Other things that move your rating
- A case raised through Volkswagen's Supply Chain Grievance Mechanism, which workers, unions and NGOs can use.
- Requirements in a specific contract's specifications, such as raw material due diligence.
- Social audit findings, which have counted in S-Rating screening since 2025. Completing the action plan is a precondition for a positive rating.
- Your own suppliers: Volkswagen requires you to pass its Code of Conduct requirements on to your direct business partners.
Where carbon fits
Volkswagen describes the S-Rating mainly in terms of working conditions and human rights. The questionnaire records processes and documents; it is not an emissions form. Because the risk analysis also covers the environment, keep your environmental policy, consent to operate and energy records in the same evidence folder. A buyer team asking for your energy use or carbon footprint is a separate request, so answer it separately.
What Senseible does here
Senseible does not fill the S-Rating questionnaire or prepare you for its audits. When a Volkswagen buyer, or any other customer, also asks for your energy use and Scope 1 and 2 emissions, Senseible reads your fuel invoices and electricity bills into emission records, each tied to its source document.
Last reviewed 2026-10-31. Volkswagen revised the S-Rating in 2025; re-check the next annual report's supply chain section for changes to the process and targets.