The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand continued its profitable growth in the third quarter of the current fiscal year.
Despite a slight decline in deliveries, sales revenue of the Volkswagen Group’s core brand improved to €65.4 billion in the first nine months of 2019, up 4.7 per cent compared with the previous year. The growth in sales revenue was primarily driven by mix and price effects.
Operating profit before special items rose to €3.2 billion, an increase of 35 per cent on the prior-year period, which had been negatively impacted by the WLTP changeover. The operating return on sales before special items improved to 4.8 per cent as of the end of September (previous year: 3.7 per cent). Special items from the diesel issue totalled €-722 million after nine months (previous year: €-1.6 billion)
“The Volkswagen brand has performed very well in the year to date in a challenging operating environment and remains on a profitable growth trajectory. Our product offensive and the measures we have taken to enhance efficiency and profitability are increasingly paying off,” said Arno Antlitz, chief financial officer of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand. “This means that we are well on our way to achieving our full-year targets. At the same time, we are working step by step to create the earnings power we need for the successful implementation of our strategy.”
Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment – especially the slowdown in the global economy as well uncertainty about Brexit and the continuing trade dispute between the US and China – Volkswagen gained additional market share in many regions of the world. The brand delivered a total of 4,514,600 vehicles between January and September (previous year: 4,622,800). The decline of 2.3 per cent was significantly smaller than that of the global market as a whole (-5.0 per cent).
The Volkswagen brand continues to expect sales revenue to increase by up to five per cent in full-year 2019. The brand still anticipates that the operating return before special items will be in the target corridor of four to five per cent – despite the negative effects of additional costs for market launches and start-up costs in connection with the continuing product offensive expected in the fourth quarter. The forecast operating return on sales of six per cent in 2022 is also being confirmed.