Financial News

The Volkswagen Group has published its financial results for the first quarter of 2025.

The Volkswagen Group is continuing to consistently pursue its ‘In China, for China’ strategy and is shifting into ‘delivery mode’ at Auto Shanghai 2025: on the eve of the world's leading trade fair for the automotive industry, the Group is presenting ten new models from its strong brands, including five world premieres. With the ID. ERA, ID. EVO and ID. AURA, three concept vehicles from the Volkswagen brand are making their debut. They represent a new generation of intelligent, fully connected electric vehicles (ICVs) that are tailored to the wishes of Chinese customers. The two further world premieres also offer cutting-edge technologies and highly automated driving assistance functions: Audi's new all-electric model based on the PPE (Premium Platform Electric) platform, the Audi A6L e-tron, and the first series model of the new AUDI brand, the AUDI E5 Sportback.

As expected, the TRATON GROUP got off to a slow start in 2025. In the first quarter of 2025, lower unit sales were recorded in a challenging market environment. Based on preliminary figures, a total of 73,100 vehicles were delivered to customers in the first quarter of 2025, 10% less than in the prior-year quarter. In the same period of the previous year, the TRATON GROUP had still benefited from a high order backlog. By contrast, unit sales for all-electric vehicles rose sharply.

On April 09, 2025, the Volkswagen Group published the deliveries for January to March 2025.

Porsche AG ended the 2024 financial year with a robust result in a challenging environment. The sports car manufacturer marked record sales in four out of five regions of the world, as well as strong automotive net cashflow, which almost reached the record levels of 2023.

On March 11, 2025, the Volkswagen Group will publish the Full Year Results 2024.

The TRATON GROUP increased its sales revenue in 2024 by 1% to €47.5 billion (2023: €46.9 billion) in a market environment that was difficult at times and despite marginally lower unit sales. A favorable market and product mix and better unit price realization in the industrial business (TRATON Operations) supported the sales revenue. Thanks to the increased portfolio volume, the TRATON Financial Services segment lifted its sales revenue by 22% to €1.9 billion (2023: €1.6 billion).

Following intensive negotiations between Volkswagen AG, IG Metall and the Works Council, a joint agreement entitled ‘Zukunft Volkswagen’ [Future Volkswagen] has been concluded. The company and the Works Council are thereby jointly positioning Volkswagen AG for sustainable success. To this end, the company is realigning production capacities at Volkswagen AG's German locations. To this end, the company is realigning production capacities at Volkswagen AG's German locations. It is creating the conditions for a reduction in labour costs of €1.5 billion per year at the collectively agreed level with an agreement on the company wage settlement until 2030. The short-term reduction in labour costs and the agreed structural measures through capacity reduction and a decrease in development costs will lead to cost savings of over €4 billion per year in the medium term. In addition, a reduction in capacity of 734,000 units across the German plants is planned. This will enable Volkswagen AG to lay the foundation for important investments in future products through to 2030. The structural realignment of the company at an operational and collective level will create the conditions for achieving the return-on-sales target for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand in the medium term.

Today, the Volkswagen Group has informed its retail partners in selected European markets that it will initiate a joint review of its sales model. While the ‘Direct to Customer’ approach with a Full Agency remains the long-term ambition, changing framework conditions might require changes in the short- to mid-term to ensure the best possible customer experience. Due to the slower transition to electric mobility across the industry, two sales models for private customers would need to be operated in parallel longer than originally anticipated: The Agency model for all-electric vehicles (BEVs) and the indirect sales model for vehicles with other drivetrains. Maintaining this high level of complexity for an extended period of time would be a key challenge for the sales organization. Therefore, a joint review process with the wholesale and retail organizations will start immediately to determine whether returning to an indirect sales model for BEVs might be a favourable alternative for the short- to mid-term. Results of this process are expected around the end of Q1 2025.

The Volkswagen Group is consistently advancing its “In China, for China” strategy. The company is strengthening its successful 40-year partnership with SAIC Motor for the long term. In Shanghai, both companies signed an extension of their joint venture agreement until the year 2040. By extending the agreement, the partners are creating early planning security beyond 2030 in a very dynamic development phase of the Chinese automotive market. At the same time, Volkswagen and SAIC are accelerating the transformation of their joint venture company, SAIC VOLKSWAGEN, in the areas of product portfolio, production, and decarbonization. The shared goal of the partners is to achieve a leading market position for SAIC VOLKSWAGEN with the Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Audi brands in the era of intelligent, fully connected electric vehicles.

Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ: RIVN) and Volkswagen Group (XETRA: VOW / VOW3) entered into a transaction agreement to create their new joint venture (JV) – “Rivian and VW Group Technology, LLC”, known as Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies - with a total deal size of up to $5.8 billion, which is expected to start on November 13. Through this JV, the companies plan to bring next-generation electrical architecture and best-in-class software technology for both companies’ future electric vehicles, covering all relevant vehicle segments, including subcompact cars. It is highly complementary reflecting Rivian’s industry-leading software and electrical hardware technology as well as Volkswagen Group’s significant global scale and industry-leading vehicle platform competencies.

In a year shaped by a persistently weak economic environment, more intense competition and political challenges, the Brand Group Core continues to concentrate in 2024 on successful model ramp-ups and execution of the performance programs in the various brands.

The collective bargaining committees of Volkswagen AG and the Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt branches of IG Metall today continued discussions in the 2024 collective bargaining round in Wolfsburg. Ahead of the negotiations, IG Metall had additionally demanded that the company reinstate the collective agreements terminated by Volkswagen AG effective December 31, 2024, without any modification of content. Due to the economic crisis in the automotive industry, Volkswagen is unable to meet this demand. Nor is it able to meet the union’s demand for a 7 percent pay rise. Rather, the company believes that reducing pay by 10 percent would give Volkswagen AG the means to make future investments so as to remain competitive and hence safeguard jobs.

The Volkswagen Group expects deliveries to customers to be around 9 million vehicles (2023: 9.24 million vehicles). The company expects Group sales revenue to be around 320 billion euros (2023: 322.3 billion euros).

The TRATON GROUP increased its sales revenue by 3% to €35.3 billion (9M 2023: €34.2 billion) in the first nine months of 2024 as the market conditions in Europe continued to normalize. This development was essentially driven by a positive market and product mix and by better unit price realization in the TRATON Operations business area. TRATON Financial Services contributed to the Group’s sales revenue growth due to a rise in portfolio volume. Adjusted operating result of the TRATON GROUP was €332 million higher at €3.3 billion (9M 2023: €2.9 billion) and adjusted operating return on sales improved to 9.3% (9M 2023: 8.6%). This was thanks primarily to continued good price management combined with an improved cost structure in the TRATON Operations business area.

Porsche AG continued on its planned course in the first nine months of 2024.

The TRATON GROUP recorded increasing unit sales in the third quarter of 2024 in a normalizing market environment. According to preliminary data, a total of 85,300 vehicles were delivered across the TRATON brands in the third quarter of 2024, up 5% on the prior-year quarter. In the first nine months of the year, unit sales amounted to 245,400 vehicles, equivalent to a decline of 2%.

During its Capital Markets Day 2024 in Munich, the TRATON GROUP outlined its ambitions for its medium-term business development. The adjusted operating return on sales is expected to be between 9 and 11% in 2029. The corresponding outlook for the current fiscal year 2024 is between 8 and 9%. The TRATON GROUP plans to grow its sales revenue by 20 to 40% over the period 2024 to 2029. Moreover, TRATON aims to fully repay the net financial debt of the industrial business within this time frame.

In a year shaped by a persistently weak economic environment, more intense competition and political challenges, the Brand Group Core continues to focus on successful model ramp-ups and execution of the performance programs in the various brands. The Brand Group plans to boost profitability in the second half of the year through a clear focus on strict cost efficiency and the realization of synergies generated by cooperation, as well as through growth.