Satisfied look back, fearful look ahead: Volkswagen has had a good year overall, but the economy and the corona pandemic should make life difficult for the group in 2020. It remains to be seen how big the risks really are.
Wolfsburg (dpa) - The core brand of the VW Group posted a higher profit last year despite mixed business.
The subsidiaries Audi and Porsche were also able to improve - but with a view to the further course of 2020, the world's largest car company expects the virus crisis to have significant consequences. CEO Herbert Diess warned: "The corona pandemic presents us with unprecedented operational and financial challenges."
As the company announced on Tuesday when the full business figures were presented, the operating profit before special items for VW cars rose from 3.2 billion euros (2018) to 3.8 billion euros (2019). The costs of coping with the diesel crisis remained roughly at the previous year's level at around 1.9 billion euros. This year, the manufacturer is facing further expenses after the comparison for diesel drivers from the model lawsuit.
Sales of the VW main brand grew by 4.5 percent to 88.4 billion euros. The share of the operating result in it recently climbed slightly from 3.8 to 4.3 percent. CEO Diess wants to gradually increase the important measure of the company's profit margin.
Sales in a number of markets declined due to the gloomier economy, and in parallel VW boosted its billion dollar investments in the expansion of electromobility in 2019. This resulted in "burdens from the lower sales of Volkswagen passenger car models, start-up costs and exchange rates", which, however, could be offset by "improvements in mix and price positioning", as it was said. Volkswagen is currently mainly increasing sales of newly launched SUV models - the city SUVs usually achieve higher prices.
For Porsche, the group reported a slight increase in profit of 2.4 percent to 4.2 billion euros before special items such as the continuing diesel loads. Skoda, Seat and Bentley as well as the truck subsidiaries Scania and MAN also improved on this basis. At Audi, on the other hand, operating profit fell from 4.7 to 4.5 billion euros, and in light commercial vehicles from 780 to 510 million euros.
The further development of the overall economic situation makes VW rather pessimistic. "2020 is a very difficult year," said Diess. He also worries about the economic situation. "By pooling our strengths, close cooperation and good morals in the group, we will be able to overcome the Corona crisis." CFO Frank Witter said that with regard to the consequences of the virus spread, it is "still uncertain how serious and how long this will affect the Volkswagen Group. A reliable forecast is currently almost impossible."
VW had to temporarily suspend production in numerous Chinese factories, and the situation in the People's Republic is now expected to stabilize somewhat. In Germany, there are now the first confirmed cases of infection among the workforce.
The key data for the entire group were already known. According to this, the VW Group was able to increase its bottom line in 2019 by 12.8 percent to 13.3 billion euros. Sales rose 7.1 percent to EUR 252.6 billion. Reasons include strong SUV sales, savings effects and falling costs to deal with the exhaust gas crisis.