The operating profit of the Volkswagen-Daughter Audi fell by 91 percent to 106 million euros in the third quarter. Chief Financial Officer Jürgen Rittersberger (52) cites the 16 percent decline in sales of the Audi brand to 407,000 cars sold, the “very intense price competition in Europe and China” and, above all, the provisions for the Audi brand as reasons a closure of the Audi factory in Brussels worth 1.2 billion euros. Only thanks to the luxury brands Lamborghini and Bentley did the brand group just manage to get into the black.
Rittersberger confirmed that the annual forecast, which was lowered in the summer. Accordingly, Audi expects a decline in group sales from 70 billion to 63 billion to 68 billion euros and a decline in the profit margin to 6 to 8 percent. However, the CFO added: “We are aiming more at the lower end.”
Audi announced at the end of October that it would stop producing cars in Brussels by the end of February 2025. The factory, which employs 3,000 people, only produces a single model, the Q8 e-tron electric SUV. Its sales figures are shrinking. The factory has very high logistics costs because there are only a few suppliers nearby. In addition, the location between a residential area, railway tracks and the motorway makes expansions difficult. The parent company Volkswagen is in crisis and does not want to launch a new model in Brussels. According to VW, discussions are still ongoing with a potential investor for the plant.
Employment guarantee confirmed – trainees will be taken on
Audi CEO Gernot Döllner (55) said: “In addition to the numerous model launches, we are clearly focusing on lean structures.” Ritterberger added: “Our focus is currently on further increasing our efficiency and competitiveness.” On the employment guarantee at Audi The company will hold on until 2029, emphasized the CFO. The trainees would be taken on. There is also no explicit hiring freeze. However, external new hires are only “hand-picked”. In Germany Audi employs around 54,000 people.
The delivery problems with the large V6 and V8 engines that caused problems for Audi in the first half of the year have now been resolved. There are now positive catch-up effects here, said Rittersberger. The price war, especially in China, and the ongoing model change across the board is putting a strain on the result. After the sharp decline in the first half of the year, used car prices have now stabilized.
Profit almost halved by the end of September
In the first nine months, the Audi brand sold 1.24 million cars, 11 percent less than last year. Especially in the USA Things went much worse because of the lack of parts for the big cars. In China, Audi sales fell by 8.5 percent to 477,000 cars – there the company is starting production of fully electric Audis with its partner FAW at the new plant in Changchun. Sales of the luxury brand Bentley fell by a third in the first nine months, while Lamborghini rose sharply.
After nine months, Audi’s sales were around 8 percent below the previous year at 46.3 billion euros, operating profit fell by more than half from 4.6 billion to 2.1 billion euros, and the return on sales halved to 4.5 percent. The profit after taxes in the first nine months was 2.4 billion euros, after 4.5 billion euros in the previous year.