To the Supervisory Board of Schaeffler AG, Herzogenaurach

We have performed a limited assurance engagement on the non-financial report of Schaeffler AG, Herzogenaurach (further “Schaeffler AG” or “Company”) and on the non-financial report of the parent company that is combined with it, as well as the chapter “Organizational structure and business activities” of the group management report (further “combined separate non-financial report”) for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2023. The parts of the combined separate non-financial report are integrated in the Company’s Sustainability Report and marked accordingly.

Responsibilities of Management

The legal representatives of the Company are responsible for the preparation of the combined separate non-financial report in accordance with §§ 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB and with Article 8 of REGULATION (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parlament and of the Council of June 18, 2020, on establishing a framework to facilitate sustainable investment and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (hereinafter the “EU Taxonomy Regulation”) and the Delegated Acts adopted thereunder, as well as for making their own interpretation of the wording and terms contained in the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the delegated acts adopted thereunder as set out in section “EU Taxonomy reporting” of the combined separate non-financial report.

This responsibility includes the selection and application of appropriate non-financial reporting methods and making assumptions and estimates about individual non-financial disclosures of the group that are reasonable in the circumstances. Furthermore, the legal representatives are responsible for such internal control as they consider necessary to enable the preparation of a combined separate non-financial report that is free from material misreport, whether due to fraud or error.

The EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts issued thereunder contain wording and terms that are still subject to considerable interpretation uncertainties and for which clarifications have not yet been published in every case. Therefore, the legal representatives have disclosed their interpretation of the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts adopted thereunder in section “EU Taxonomy reporting” of the combined separate non-financial report. They are responsible for the defensibility of this interpretation. Due to the immanent risk that indeterminate legal terms may be interpreted differently, the legal conformity of the interpretation is subject to uncertainties.

Independence and Quality Assurance of the Assurance Practitioner’s firm

We have complied with the independence and quality assurance requirements set out in the national legal provisions and professional pronouncements, in particular the Professional Code for German Public Auditors and Chartered Accountants (in Germany) and the IDW Standard on Quality Management 1: Requirements for Quality Management in Audit Firms (IDW QMS 1 (09.2022)).

Responsibility of the Assurance Practitioner

Our responsibility is to express a conclusion with limited assurance on the combined separate non-financial report based on our assurance engagement.

We conducted our assurance engagement in accordance with International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): “Assurance Engagements other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information“ issued by the IAASB. This standard requires that we plan and perform the assurance engagement to obtain limited assurance about whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the company’s combined separate non-financial report for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2023, are not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with Sections 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB and the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts issued thereunder as well as the interpretation by the company’s legal representatives disclosed in section “EU Taxonomy reporting” of the combined separate non-financial report. We do not, however, issue a separate conclusion for each disclosure.

In a limited assurance engagement, the procedures performed are less extensive than in a reasonable assurance engagement, and accordingly, a substantially lower level of assurance is obtained. The selection of the assurance procedures is subject to the professional judgment of the assurance practitioner.

In the course of our assurance engagement we have, among other things, performed the following assurance procedures and other activities:

• Inquiries of group-level personnel who are responsible for the materiality analysis in order to understand the 
  processes for determining material topics and respective reporting boundaries for Schaeffler AG
• Inquiries of personnel who are responsible on group-level to obtain an understanding of the procedures used to identify relevant economic activities according to the EU Taxonomy Regulation
• A risk analysis, including media research, to identify relevant information on Schaeffler AG’s sustainability performance in the reporting period
• Evaluation of the design and the implementation of systems and processes for the collection, processing and monitoring of disclosures, including data consolidation, on environmental-, employee- and social matters, respect for human rights, and anti-corruption and bribery matters
• Inquiries of group-level personnel who are responsible for determining disclosures on concepts, due diligence processes, results and risks, performing internal control functions, and consolidating disclosures
• Evaluation of the design and the implementation of systems and processes for the collection, processing, and monitoring of disclosures on turnover, capital expenditure, and operating expenditure for the taxonomy-eligible and taxonomy-aligned economic activities
• Inspection of selected internal and external documents
• Analytical procedures for the evaluation of data and of the trends of quantitative disclosures as reported at group level by all sites
• Evaluation of local data collection, validation, and reporting processes as well as the reliability of reported data based on a sample of the sites in Schweinfurt (Germany), Sorocaba (Brazil), and Nanjing (China)
• Evaluation of the process for the identification of taxonomy-eligible and taxonomy-aligned economic activities and the corresponding disclosures in the combined separate non-financial report
• Assessment of the overall presentation of the disclosures

In determining the disclosures in accordance with Article 8 of the EU Taxonomy Regulation, the legal representatives of the company are required to interpret undefined legal terms. Due to the immanent risk that undefined legal terms may be interpreted differently, the legal conformity of their interpretation and, accordingly, our assurance engagement thereon are subject to uncertainties.

Assurance Opinion

Based on the assurance procedures performed and the evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the combined separate non-financial report of Schaeffler AG for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2023, has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with Sections 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB and the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts issued thereunder as well as the interpretation by the legal representatives of the company as disclosed in section “EU Taxonomy reporting” of the combined separate non-financial report.

Restriction of Use/General Engagement Terms

This assurance report is solely addressed to the Supervisory Board of Schaeffler AG, Herzogenaurach.

Our assignment for the Supervisory Board of Schaeffler AG, Herzogenaurach, and professional liability is governed by the General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüfer (German Public Auditors) and Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften (German Public Audit Firms) (Allgemeine Auftragsbedingungen für Wirtschaftsprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften) in the version dated January 1, 2017 (https://www.kpmg.de/bescheinigungen/lib/aab_english.pdf).

By reading and using the information contained in this assurance report, each recipient confirms having taken note of provisions of the General Engagement Terms (including the limitation of our liability for negligence to EUR 4 million as stipulated in No. 9) and accepts the validity of the attached General Engagement Terms with respect to us.

Nuremberg, February 21, 2024

KPMG AG
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

Schieler
Wirtschaftsprüfer
[German Public Auditor]

Edelmann
Wirtschaftsprüferin
[German Public Auditor]

1 Our engagement applied to the German version of the combined separate non-financial report 2023. This text is a translation of the Independent Assurance Report issued in German, whereas the German text is authoritative.