The VW Group posted a billion-dollar loss in the third quarter, primarily because of the problems at its sports car subsidiary Porsche. The bottom line is that there was a loss of 1.07 billion euros between July and September, as the Wolfsburg-based automobile manufacturer announced on Thursday. A year ago there was a surplus of 1.56 billion euros. In the first nine months overall, the surplus fell by more than 60 percent, from 8.8 to 3.4 billion euros. Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said, according to the statement, that charges amounting to 7.5 billion euros were primarily to blame, primarily due to increased tariffs, the adjustment of Porsche’s product strategy and write-downs on Porsche’s goodwill. The adjustments and depreciation at Porsche alone would have burdened the group with 4.7 billion euros. Without these special effects, the profit margin would have been 5.4 percent, according to the manager. “That’s actually a decent value in the current economic environment.” The group was able to increase slightly in terms of sales and revenue: sales rose by 0.6 percent to 239 billion euros in the first nine months, and deliveries rose by 1.2 percent to 6.6 million vehicles. Porsche’s sticking to the combustion engine is a burden. Last week, Porsche had already reported deep red figures for the third quarter. The VW subsidiary is suffering from billions in costs for the latest strategy shift to extend the combustion engine. In the third quarter this led to an operating loss of almost one billion euros, and in the first nine months overall the result after taxes fell by almost 96 percent. This now also had an impact on the parent company. The core brand Volkswagen, which had been weak for a long time, was able to improve further. The operating return on sales rose slightly to 2.3 percent in the nine months. Because of the austerity program with planned tens of thousands of job cuts at the core brand, things were going a little better here. Other subsidiaries save sales. At the end of 2024, after a long struggle, the company and the union agreed on a restructuring program for the core brand VW. More than 35,000 jobs are to be cut by 2030, almost a quarter of the 130,000 jobs in Germany. The group has recently been able to increase sales again. In the third quarter, 2.2 million vehicles from all Group brands were delivered, one percent more than a year earlier, as the Group announced almost three weeks ago. This was mainly due to strong growth in electric cars and strong figures from the subsidiaries Skoda and Seat.More on the topicIn North America, however, things fell, as did China. However, things went better again in Europe. Group-wide electric car sales rose by a third. They accounted for more than a tenth of all vehicles sold.
Go to Source