The German group Volkswagen, which in 2020 again became world number two behind the Japanese Toyota with 9.2 million vehicles sold, has remained in the green.
It almost halved its operating profit to 9.67 billion euros, and its net income reached 8.82 billion.
Its turnover fell 11.8% to 222 billion.
The group had yet suffered a pre-tax loss of 1.4 billion in the first half of the year after the collapse in car sales in the spring due to the measures put in place to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Orders have experienced a strong rebound since this summer, helped in particular by China, whose
"rapid recovery"
was one of the
"determining"
factors
,
underlines the group.
This year, Volkswagen expects its sales to be significantly higher.
But new challenges emerge: intense competition, the volatility of commodity prices, securing the supply chain and more stringent requirements on CO2 emissions.
Nevertheless, the Volkswagen group, which includes the brands Audi, Skoda, Seat, Porsche, Scania and Man, hopes that its operating margin will be between 5% and 6.5% for its cars dedicated to individuals and between 4% and 5.5% for commercial vehicles.
Engaged in the energy transition, the group sold 422,000 electrified vehicles in 2020. Not enough to fall below the 95 g / km CO2 emission mark on average set by the European Commission.
It reached 99.8 g / km.
This should earn him a fine of 140 million euros, according to calculations by Schmidt Automotive Research.
At the start of the year, Herbert Diess, the group's CEO, admitted that he had not reached the maximum authorized threshold:
"Upset by the Covid pandemic, we narrowly missed the 2020 target."
But the Volkswagen group is
"on the way to becoming a CO2 neutral company".
In addition, Dieselgate cost him another 931 million last year.
