The VW employees in Wolfsburg earn well, only VW incurred a loss of 415 euros with every car in the first half of the year
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / DPAAccording to the industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, the very different results of the carmakers in the first half of the year "revealed hidden problems". The car sales of the Volkswagen group fell by 28 percent, of Toyota by 29 percent. But Volkswagen made a loss of 415 euros per car, while Toyota 533 euros and the French Opel parent PSA even made 707 euros in profit per car. This shows "that stronger adjustments must be made in the VW group than at Toyota," wrote Dudenhöffer in a study.
Time is of the essence, because VW has benefited from the China business, which PSA hardly has. And with the merger of PSA and Fiat Chrysler, VW's economies of scale would also decrease.
The comparison in the upper class is just as surprising. The loss per car sold is around 1100 euros for BMW, less than 600 euros for Mercedes and Audi and only 343 euros for Volvo, although they had similar sales slumps.
High losses in the Corona crisis are "an indicator of the need for adjustment by individual companies," wrote the industry expert. Because the recovery of the auto markets in Europe and America will take a very long time. "Capacity must therefore be reduced."
Despite the crisis, Porsche earned almost 10,000 euros on each car, Tesla almost 3,000 euros. Dudenhöffer included the US electrical pioneer’s profit from the sale of CO2 certificates to other car manufacturers. Unlike everyone else, Tesla is investing in new plants.
GM has focused on the markets in America and China and is making a profit - Ford is writing deep red numbers. The new Ford boss Jim Farley (58) is likely to weigh up in the next few months whether and how the European business can be restructured sustainably, Dudenhöffer expects.
rei / dpa
