(Adds details, background)
STOCKHOLM, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Electronic car products maker Veoneer, carved out of Autoliv this year, forecast delays in achieving its 2020 income and sales targets due to postponed production starts for some car models, sending its shares tumbling.
The Swedish company, which is focused on high-tech safety gear to target self-driving cars, said on Thursday it expected to achieve its operating margin target of 0 to 5 percent one to two years later than its original expectation of 2020.
It also said it was likely to reach its $3 billion total sales target for 2020 later than previously anticipated, but did not say how much later.
Veoneer’s Sweden-listed stock was down 17 percent at 306 Swedish crowns at 1038 GMT.
Interest and orders for Veoneer’s radar products, vision systems and advanced driver assistance software have been rising, but it will only book revenues against current orders as much as three years later as car production ramps up.
“The volatile nature of this evolving market and light vehicle fluctuations make the precise timing of its development difficult to predict,” Chief Executive Jan Carlson said in a statement.
“In the short-term, we see some delays in the start of production and slower ramp-ups of certain customer models along with some slight delays in expected business.”
The company is likely to stay loss-making before output of new car models kicks in as it invests in people and technology. It had previously said the phase-out of some contracts would result in a 3 percent fall in 2018 organic sales.
Veoneer downgraded that forecast on Thursday, saying full-year organic sales would fall 4 percent due to a near-term slowdown in light vehicle production.
A number of carmakers have issued warnings in recent months, hit by the burden of tougher regulations and an ongoing United States-China trade war, which has in part contributed to the recent slowdown in China’s economic growth.
Last week, German carmaker Daimler issued its second earnings warning since June. (Reporting by Esha Vaish and Johannes Hellstrom in Stockholm, editing by Niklas Pollard)