Volkswagen AG concluded 2024 with decrease working outcomes however barely elevated gross sales income. The carmaker offered its plans to navigate the challenges coming from the US and China, however they haven’t factored in tariffs for 2025.
Tumbling working revenue, a decrease dividend and barely elevated gross sales income have been among the many bulletins from struggling German carmaker VW in its newest earnings report for 2024.
Volkswagen’s working revenue was down by 15% in comparison with 2023 and got here in at €19.1bn.
The destructive end result was partly as a consequence of mounted prices, which swelled to €2.6bn, a lot of which was spent on restructuring.
VW expects its working margin, which hit 5.9% in 2024, to be between 5.5% and 6.5% this yr.
“In a difficult aggressive atmosphere, we achieved an honest total monetary efficiency in 2024,” Arno Antlitz, CFO & COO of Volkswagen Group, mentioned in a press release.
The dad or mum firm of main European manufacturers, together with Porsche, Lamborghini,= and Skoda, offered 9 million automobiles worldwide, 3.5% beneath the earlier yr. The corporate noticed progress in South America however that would not totally offset the decline in China. In the meantime, automobile gross sales in North America and Europe have been secure.
The group’s gross sales income was €324.7bn, barely up, by 1%, from the earlier yr, pushed by the monetary providers enterprise. VW expects gross sales income to extend by 5% in 2025, sending the message to buyers that the worst could possibly be over.
The carmaker has been struggling to maintain the enterprise worthwhile as a consequence of excessive vitality costs and different manufacturing prices, cheaper Chinese language competitors, emissions-related laws, and geopolitical tensions.
In December, VW introduced that it might lower round 35,000 jobs in Germany till 2030, as a part of its restructuring plan.
In response to the earnings report, the Board of Administration and Supervisory Board are proposing a dividend of €6.30 per strange share and €6.36 per most popular share to the Annual Normal Assembly, a 30% lower in comparison with 2023.
Traders reacted barely positively to Volkswagen AG’s 2024 outcomes, with the share worth climbing by greater than 2% within the first hour after buying and selling opened in Frankfurt.
What’s VW bracing for in 2025?
In 2025, VW goals to spice up productiveness and improve profitability, group CEO Oliver Blume mentioned, including that VW needs to be “the worldwide automotive expertise driver by 2030”.
Nevertheless, the carmaker acknowledges that challenges are arising from political uncertainty, growing commerce restrictions and geopolitical tensions.
Volkswagen AG can be bracing for growing depth of competitors, risky commodity, vitality and international change markets, and extra stringent emissions-related necessities.
“We preserve combustion engines technologically aggressive, we’re concurrently investing in electrical fashions and software program, and we proceed to strengthen our regional presence – with a transparent progress and funding technique within the US,” Antlitz mentioned.
“The present outlook doesn’t embrace doable results from the oblique introduction or adjustment of commerce tariffs”, nor from “the doable leisure of CO2 laws in Europe,” Antlitz additionally famous.