According to a study by the consulting firm EY, the world’s largest car manufacturers continue to make record profits. “The bottom line is that the third quarter was a dream quarter for the auto industry, despite the slowing economy and a very difficult geopolitical situation,” said Constantin Gall, head of EY’s Western Europe mobility division. The supply of semiconductors is slowly improving and the demand for premium vehicles in particular is still high.
According to EY industry consultant Peter Fuss, the market for volume manufacturers in particular could come under pressure in the future. “We are currently experiencing that large sections of the population in important sales markets are having to accept a significant loss of purchasing power. This means that fewer and fewer people can or want to afford a new car.” Manufacturers of high-priced cars, on the other hand, will be more likely to avoid discount battles.
According to EY, between July and September both the total profit from ongoing business and the total sales of the 16 analyzed companies were at the highest level ever recorded in a third quarter. On average, the manufacturers were able to increase both their sales and their operating profit by 28 percent. For German manufacturers, the increase in operating profit was even 58 percent, for US companies 38 percent and for Japanese companies 2 percent.
When operating profit had Mercedes Benz the world leader and was well ahead of the market at around 5.2 billion euros Volkswagengroup, which ranked second with 4.7 billion euros. bmw was in fifth place with 3.7 billion euros. The world’s largest car manufacturer in terms of sales Toyota on the other hand, weakened and had to accept a drop in profits of 25 percent. In terms of sales, Volkswagen again led the ranking – the group from Wolfsburg made sales of 70.7 billion euros from July to September, according to EY. Toyota follows in second place.
Even in the recently restrained Chinese market, things went uphill again for car manufacturers. The German manufacturers increased sales by 28 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year, after the figures had recently tended to decline. Mercedes-Benz grew the most with a plus of 67 percent. However, the Stuttgart-based company recently had to in China also lower prices. “In China, the trees no longer grow in the sky, the market is very competitive and demanding,” said Fuß.