2024 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:13
The VW Group was able to achieve significantly more profit last year. The carmaker also benefited from the strong demand for SUVs.
The bottom line was that the result increased by 12.8 percent to 13.3 billion euros compared to the previous year. The VW Group announced this on Friday after a meeting of the Supervisory Board in Wolfsburg. However, looking at the current year is emphatically cautious. The risks include the poor economic situation in many sales markets, but also the growing uncertainty caused by the new type of corona virus.
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In addition to the strong business, especially with city SUVs and savings in the core brand VW passenger cars, falling costs for coping with the emissions crisis ensured a good VW balance sheet in 2019. According to preliminary figures, the group had to estimate 2.34 billion euros for the contaminated sites of «Dieselgate» in the past year - in 2018, special items of 3.18 billion euros were posted.
VW remains the world's largest automaker
In terms of deliveries, the group remained the world's largest automaker ahead of arch rival Toyota in 2019. The increase was 1.3 percent to 10.97 million vehicles, the Japanese came to 10.7 million. The sales of the VW group grew by 7.1 percent to 252.6 billion euros. The dividend for preferred shareholders is to increase from 4.86 to 6.56 euros. In day-to-day business, operating profit adjusted for special factors increased by 12.8 percent to 19.3 billion euros.
The company wants to distribute a total of 830 million euros to around 260,000 diesel victims from the Braunschweig model declaratory action. This is likely to increase the entire diesel bill once again; the global legal costs are now already more than 30 billion euros. Customers who want to take part in the out-of-court settlement should receive between 1350 and 6257 euros for their vehicle, depending on the type and age.
Billion investment in e-mobility
The further expansion of e-mobility, into which billions will flow in the coming years, will also be expensive. In the meantime, SUVs and luxury cars still have to help finance such investments. The start of the new ID.3 compact car at the Zwickau plant is particularly important. There have recently been delays in the software configuration and there have been reports of problems with test drives. Volkswagen is officially sticking to the planned market launch for mid-year.
Sales manager Jürgen Stackmann recently said: "We are sure that we can do this with the timetable in summer." A spokesman explained: "In Zwickau, the vehicles are updated with the latest software in production - and then updated to the latest software version in the summer before delivery to our customers." Without a sufficient number of e-models, it is considered impossible to achieve the EU's stricter CO2 reduction targets and avoid high fines. The new Golf 8 also had problems with the electronics at the beginning, which was followed by a correspondingly “flat start-up curve”.
Alarm signals from China
The weaker car demand in many countries is also a challenge for the Wolfsburg-based company. CEO Herbert Diess had warned at the turn of the year: "Economically, the alarm signals from China and the USA are intensifying." In China, the group performed relatively well compared to its competitors at the end of 2019, with operating profit falling for the full year
Joint venture there slightly from 4.6 to 4.4 billion euros. Due to the coronavirus, production recently had to be temporarily suspended.
The spread of the pathogen makes it difficult to assess the future situation: In addition to geopolitical tensions and conflicts, "cross-border and cross-regional epidemics, such as the current spread of the coronavirus" are issues that "need to be monitored closely".
In the US business, the risk of possible punitive tariffs also remains. With a view to the coming months, CFO Frank Witter said: "This year we are again assuming challenging market conditions, so that the achievement of our ambitious goals will be an act of strength for the entire company." (dpa)
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