Five things to sort out before your old erWin licence expires
25 September 2026 
The new erWin has been live in the UK since August. A short checklist for independent workshops.
The move to the new erWin is not a switch that flips overnight. Your previous erWin stays available for a transition period, and licences you have already bought there run until they expire. But new licences can only be purchased in the new portal — so the setup is better done before you need it, not on the morning a car is on the ramp.
- Register your company for the new erWin
Start at erwin.vwgroup-datahub.com and click “Log in”, top right. Your company registers once for a One Business ID — the central company account for Volkswagen Group digital B2B services.
Have your company details to hand. Companies based outside Germany also go through a verification process. That check runs in the background — once you are registered, you can use erWin to its full extent while the verification is still underway.
You will be asked for your organisation type: independent workshop, public authority, educational institute/chamber/association, publisher, body manufacturer or other company type. Organisation types with special rates need an additional check by the vehicle brands, which can take a while, so start early if that applies to you.
- Agree who registers — and check nobody already has
The first person to register your company automatically becomes its administrator and manages every user and licence from then on. Settle internally who that is before anyone starts.
Check as well whether a colleague has registered your company already. A second registration for the same business is picked up as a duplicate and rejected, and data protection rules mean support cannot tell you who the existing administrator is — so asking around your own team first is the quickest route.
- Add your users while you are there
Licences belong to the company, so any user in your account can use them — but only users who exist in the account can work at all. Adding your technicians now saves doing it under pressure later.
- Check your ODIS working context
For ODIS diagnostic licences the working context is still mandatory — but you now store it once, under My erWin > My profile, instead of entering it with every purchase. If you already work with ODIS you apply for nothing new: read the number off your Group Retail Portal account, top left. It combines the country code, your five-digit dealer number and a brand letter, so a UK workshop’s Volkswagen context reads GBR12345V. The letters are V for Volkswagen, N for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, C for Škoda, S for SEAT and Cupra, A for Audi, E for Bentley and L for Lamborghini — and you hold one working context per brand. No dealer number yet? Request it from your importer, and do that early. Once the working context is in your profile, install ODIS — before you buy, because the licence period starts the moment you purchase.
- Transfer your annual licences
Annual licences from the old erWin can be moved across to the new portal. Check what you are still holding and transfer it rather than letting it lapse.
Where to find the details
- Transition page, rollout dates and FAQs: drivesomethinggreater.com/erwininfo/transition
- Registration and licence shop: erwin.vwgroup-datahub.com
- erWin support: contact form on the portal, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Berlin time)
The old erWin is switched off on 31 December 2026. After that, only the new portal is available.
www.drivesomethinggreater.com/erwininfo/transition
One access. Eight brands. All in one place. The new erWin.