Auto industry: Audi fights with a drop in profits and moderate prospects

Audi break the profits. In 2024, the post-tax result of the Ingolstadt VW subsidiary dropped by 33 percent to 4.2 billion euros, as the group announced. It is already the second significant decline in a row. The number not only refers to the core brand, but to the sub -group Audi, which also includes Bentley, Lamborghini and Ducati. Audi reacts to the current difficulties with job cuts, as was already known on Monday evening.

“A year ago we said that in 2024 a year of the transition. The challenges did not become smaller. Weak demand meets an increased supply – especially in China.

In 2024, like many other car manufacturers, Audi had suffered from weak demand and price struggles in China. In the first half of the Ingolstadt, problems with missing parts were added to larger engines in the first half of the year, and high provisions for closing the factory in Brussels. The drop in sales of the core brand Audi also caused sales, which dropped by almost 8 percent to 64.5 billion euros.

The three smaller brands in the Audi group, on the other hand, ran better and pulled the result significantly up. Each of them came to significantly higher operational returns than the core brand Audi – above all Lamborghini, who plays with a margin of 27 percent in its own league, as CFO Jürgen Rittersberger said. In contrast, at Audi it was only 4.6 percent.

In 2025 Audi wants to increase sales, sales and return again, but it won’t be easy. “But we still have a tough way ahead of us,” said Rittersberger. “The markets remain competitive.” In addition, there is further retention of purchase in China, where Audi only expects a sideways movement during sales. On the other hand, new models should help. In 2025 and 2026, more than 20 would come onto the market, said Döllner.

Another risk of Audi is the current customs policy of the United States. In the short term, levers were only limited here, it said. Audi may therefore have to increase prices in the USA.

Audi is not alone with the slump in profits. The two premium competitors BMW and Mercedes-Benz have also reported crashes, as well as the corporate mother VW. But compared to the arch -rivals from Stuttgart and Munich, the special situation characterized by extremely high profits by a special situation characterized by corona and chip deficiency, Audi does rather weakly.

At Mercedes, the profit dropped by 28 percent, but was still 10.4 billion euros, at BMW it was 37 percent down to 7.7 billion. Both values ​​that Audi can only dream of at the moment.

And so Audi joins a trend widespread in large parts of the industry and strokes jobs. On the eve of his years, the car manufacturer announced the reduction of up to 7,500 jobs in Germany by 2029, albeit without any operating dismissals.

There should also be further financial incisions – among other things, the participation of the employees is restructured and shortened for some time. In the medium term, Audi expects savings of at least one billion euros each year.

After a long struggle, there is an agreement with the employee side, which also provides for an extension of employment securing by the end of 2033 and a bonus for members of IG Metall.

The current forecast for 2025 does not include the degradation measures. However, it is still unclear whether costs or savings will be predominated in the current year.

The reduction does not yet apply when the employees have been paid for 2024, which will be paid out in the current year. With 5310 euros for a skilled worker, in view of the weaker business, she is much lower than a year earlier, since it depends, among other things, on the operational result. A year ago there was still 8840 euros.