For weeks, car factories stood still, car dealerships were orphaned, traffic offices closed: The Coronavirus pandemicSo much has been clear since the lockdowns in Europe and the USA would hit the automotive industry hard. Now a number of major automakers have released their second quarter figures, which ran from early April to late June. Now it shows who is reasonably unscathed through the first big corona wave and who has a hard list.
Volkswagen sees a glimmer of hope
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Of the Volkswagen group for example, because of the corona crisis get deep in the red. In the second quarter, the world’s largest automaker posted an operating loss of EUR 1.7 billion before special items, as the Wolfsburg-based company announced on Thursday. A year ago there was still a profit of 5.1 billion. In the period from April to June, sales slumped by 37 percent to EUR 41 billion due to the rapidly falling sales. However, the percentage backlog in deliveries has been decreasing continuously since May, Volkswagen described a glimmer of hope.
For the year as a whole, VW confirmed the forecast that deliveries and sales will be significantly below the level of the previous year. Management continues to assume a “serious decline” in the operating result, but does not expect a loss. The automaker’s board of directors used the corona crisis to numerous personnel rochades in the boardrooms of the subsidiaries.
Daimler speaks of market recovery – and saves ironly
At the Stuttgart carmaker Daimler an adjusted EBIT loss of EUR 1.9 billion was incurred in the second quarter. That was a slightly larger minus than in the same period last year at 1.3 billion euros – at that time, however, the group had to increase the provisions for diesel processes and Takata airbags worth billions. From April to June, sales fell 29 percent year-on-year to EUR 30.2 billion.
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However, Daimler gives up mildly confident for the rest of the year. The market recovery was stronger than expected, it said before the quarterly figures from the Stuttgart, in June there was even a “strong” development. The goal of operating in the black for the full year before special effects is subject to the proviso that a new wave of corona infections does not stall the economic recovery.
But Daimler boss Ola Källenius (51) is also using the current crisis to tighten his austerity measures: he has wrested a wage waiver from his German workforce, canceled the bonus and reduced working hours. A total of up to 30,000 jobs are to be lost at Daimler, including many in management. Details can be found on m +.
“Tidy loss” – BMW tightened austerity measures
competitor BMW will not publish its report for the second quarter until August 5, i.e. in less than a week. On Bavarian television BMW boss Oliver Zipse (56) had already attuned to unsightly figures in mid-July: “We will make a lot of losses,” said Zipse according to a specialist blogthat it was the worst quarter that BMW had ever experienced. This is not surprising, after all, BMW’s worldwide sales also fell by a good quarter. BMW has now linked executive salaries to ambitious climate targets.
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But that should only be a harbinger of intensified savings efforts: According to reports, the Munich-based company decided in mid-June to cut 6,000 jobs, the first staff reduction at BMW since the 2008 financial crisis. BMW had announced an austerity program before the global corona virus pandemic broke out. that over the next three years save two billion euros in its factories should.
Opel creates a margin of two percent
The long, chronically loss-making brand was a surprise Opelunder the wing of the French automaker PSA hatched: The Rüsselsheim have according to their own information well maintained in the Corona crisis. Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall reported an operating profit for the first half of the year. “We managed to contribute an operating profit of 110 million euros,” said Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller (51) on Tuesday when the company figures were published on LinkedIn. That corresponds to a margin of two percent. In the same period last year, Opel had made around 700 million euros in profit.
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However, just like Renault, PSA applies a special feature to its figures: the French traditionally only publish figures for the entire half-year, which also included two largely “normal” sales months. The competition, on the other hand, presented figures for the second quarter, which was very badly affected by the lockdowns. Opel may have come through the Corona crisis reasonably well, but the company is facing another test. Because when the Opel mother PSA merged with the competitor Fiat Chrysler, the traditional German brand could get under the wheels.
Renault starves and saves – under new leadership
The situation for PSA’s competitors has changed from tense to catastrophic Renault developed. Renault’s alliance partner Nissan breaks the French an unprecedented half-year loss of 7.2 billion euros, in the same period last year Renault still had a profit of 970 million euros. However, the French hope that they have the worst behind them. “We have reached a low point,” said Vice Director General Clotilde Delbos (53) in a virtual press conference on Thursday. Renault also now wants to make substantial savings: the car maker wants to cut 15,000 jobs worldwide and save a total of around two billion euros. Implementing all of this will be the responsibility of the new Renault boss Luca de Meo (53), who has been in office since the beginning of July and previously headed the Volkswagen brand Seat.
Tesla surprises with a win and attacks head-on
The electric car manufacturer, however, delivered a real surprise Tesla from: The from Elon Musk (49) e-car pioneer led to a bottom line profit of $ 104 million in the second quarter. This was made possible through cost reductions and relatively stable sales. Quarterly sales fell to $ 6.04 from $ 6.35 billion, but analysts had anticipated a much more severe slump due to the corona crisis. Despite a six-week halt to production at its California facility, Tesla delivered a good 90,000 vehicles in the second quarter and plans to sell more than half a million in 2020.
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No wonder that Tesla’s share price last moved upward vigorously. The Americans continue to expand: in Grünheide near Berlin in Tesla’s first car factory in Europe the first electric cars will roll off the assembly line from the end of 2021. Tesla wants to be here also manufacture battery cells and is already planning another, second large plant in the USA: Musk plans to build his e-pick-up cyber truck in Texas in the future, as he announced a week ago when the quarterly figures were announced. The plant is expected to create more than 5,000 jobs.
So while the Germans are starving, Tesla continues to attack and hurries to the local, traditional car manufacturers. Musk also has a clear goal in mind that could be dangerous for the German automotive industry – namely to build cheaper electric cars for the mass market. “The thing that bothers me the most is that our cars are not more affordable. We have to do that,” he said at the annual press conference. German car manufacturers and international competition must therefore dress warmly when they have weathered the Corona crisis.
wed with material from Reuters, dpa, afp