Volkswagen reports horror numbers: profit breaks up by 30 percent

The Volkswagen Group made significantly less profit last year because of the hard competition in China and due to high renovation costs. The bottom line was that VW earned almost 31 percent less than a year earlier at 12.4 billion euros, as the Wolfsburgers said.

Significantly fewer results came from the former profit bristle country of China. In addition, high costs were due, among other things, for the Audi plant in Brussels. In day -to -day business, the operational result fell by a good 15 percent to 19.1 billion euros. This corresponded to a margin of 5.9 percent after 7.0 percent in the previous year. VW kept up better than recently.

In contrast, sales increased by almost one percent to 324.7 billion euros. The dividend is to be shortened by 30 percent to 6.36 euros per preferred preference share. This is a clearer cut than expected.

Despite the industry weakness, the VW Group is targeting sales growth this year. The proceeds at Group level should increase up to 5 percent compared to the previous year’s value.

VW boss Oliver Blume expects the operational return on a range of 5.5 to 6.5 percent and thus remains roughly at the level of the previous year.

Volkswagen had announced in a long smoldering conflict shortly before the end of the year to delete almost every fourth job with the core brand VW Car with 35,000 jobs in Germany by 2030.

According to VW, challenges arise primarily from an environment of political uncertainty, increasing trade restrictions and geopolitical tensions.

After a phase of increased investments, Europe’s largest car manufacturer wants to significantly shorten its expenses in the coming years. From 2025 to 2029, a total of around 165 billion euros are to be put into new facilities, technology and software, as CFO Arno Antlitz said.

The Wolfsburgers had planned around 180 billion euros for the previous five -year period from 2024 to 2028.

In addition, the investments in the combustion engine would gradually go back. However, the group wants to continue to focus on flexibility in order to be able to offer customers different drive types. “We will continue to adapt our battery division to the market environment,” he said.

Volkswagen had reserved a lot of money for its own battery cell works, but the ride of electric cars runs more slow in the industry overall than expected. In addition, VW wants to get to the destination with software and networking through partnerships such as the US electric car provider Rivian.

Note: This article has been updated