#Finance

Porsche AG has got off to a vigorous and forward-looking start to the challenging 2024 financial year. In this year of product launches, the sports car manufacturer is renewing four out of its six model lines. The first quarter was marked by the ramp-ups of the third model generation of the Panamera and the new Taycan. In addition, large-scale investments have been made in digitalization and research and development. Accordingly, the Porsche Group recorded an expected decline in sales and earnings in the first three months. At the end of the quarter, Group sales revenue amounted to 9.01 billion euros (previous year: 10.10 billion euros). Group operating profit was 1.28 billion euros (previous year: 1.84 billion euros). Group sales revenue came in at 14.2 per cent (previous year: 18.2 per cent).

The TRATON GROUP reported a successful start to 2024 and increased its sales revenue, adjusted operating result, and adjusted operating return on sales in the first quarter despite a slight decrease in unit sales. The TRATON GROUP brands sold a total of 81,100 (3M 2023: 84,600) vehicles between January and March, a slight year-on-year decline of 4%. At the same time, sales revenue grew 5% to €11.8 billion (3M 2023: €11.2 billion) thanks to a favorable product and market mix and improved unit price realization. Accounting for 19% (3M 2023: 20%) of total sales revenue, the vehicle services business made a considerable contribution to business performance. At 66,400 (3M 2023: 68,500) vehicles, the Company’s incoming orders in the first quarter of the year were solid and thus only slightly down by 3% year-on-year. The book-to-bill ratio, or the ratio of incoming orders to unit sales, was 0.8 in the first three months. This meant that unit sales were higher than incoming orders, allowing order backlog to continue to return to normal. At €1,106 million (3M 2023: €935 million), adjusted operating result was up significantly on the prior-year period. In light of the 5% increase in sales revenue, adjusted operating return on sales rose by 1 percentage point in the first quarter of 2024 to 9.4%.

Volkswagen launches the next phase of its transformation in China. At its China Capital Markets Day in Beijing, Volkswagen Group presented its strategy update for the Chinese market. The focus is on its target to strengthen tech capabilities and reduce costs in the strongly growing market. The Group plans to achieve cost parity with local competition in the compact car segment by 2026 and gain further momentum through a re-aligned strategy and an efficiency program that was launched already. In addition, the company underlined its commitment to its “in China, for China” strategy: It presented measures to cater even better to the needs of Chinese customers, accelerate model developments and time-to-market as well as significantly reduce costs. In addition, the aim is to better harness the innovative power of the market and increase local value creation through more in-house development capabilities and strong local partnerships. As a result, the Group aims to strengthen its position as the #1 international OEM in the Chinese market and has set ambitious targets until 2030: Approximately 4 million vehicles sold and growth in proportionate operating result to around EUR 3.0 billion, including the fully consolidated Anhui joint venture.

The Volkswagen Group increased its deliveries in the first quarter of 2024 by 3 percent to 2.10 million vehicles. The main growth drivers were China (+8 percent), South America (+14 percent) and North America (+5 percent). Vehicles with combustion engines increased by 4 percent to 1.97 million units, overcompensating the slight decline of 3 percent to 136,400 all-electric vehicles (BEV). In this segment, strong growth in China (+91 percent) did not fully offset the decline in Europe (-24 percent). However, incoming orders for BEVs in Western Europe developed positively from January to March. More than twice as many all-electric models were ordered as in the same period last year (+154 percent), so that the BEV order bank currently stands at around 160,000 vehicles.

The Audi Group has achieved a solid result in the 2023 fiscal year under challenging economic conditions. Revenue rose by 13.1 percent to €69.9 billion, the operating profit was €6.3 billion, and the operating margin was 9.0 percent. Net cash flow was nearly on par with the previous year at €4.7 billion. With numerous new models, Audi will significantly strengthen and expand its product portfolio in the coming years: The world premiere of the fully electric Audi Q6 e-tron, the first model on the new Premium Platform Electric (PPE), heralds a series of product launches. More than 20 new models are planned for 2024 and 2025.

The Brand Group Core delivered robust financial results in 2023. Higher volume and price effects, improved availability of parts and lower fixed costs had a positive effect, while higher product costs and the deconsolidation of Volkswagen Group Rus had a negative impact on the result. The global market and competitive environment remains challenging. The Brand Group Core is working on further stabilizing its performance with a view to improving its resilience against external factors, in particular given the slower development of the e-mobility market in Europe.

Volkswagen Group achieved robust financial results in a challenging environment in 2023. Thanks to progress in electrification and a flexible product strategy, the Group successfully is able to meet customers’ needs worldwide. At the same time, 2023 was a year of restructuring for Volkswagen Group. In many areas of the TOP-10 program, the Group has made progress faster than originally planned. With more than 30 new products, 2024 will be the year of world premieres, with highlights including the high-performance all-electric vehicles based on the new PPE premium platform. Volkswagen Group is therefore confident about the current year and an accelerated ramp-up from 2025 onwards. The overarching Group goal remains sustainable, value-creating growth.

Volkswagen Group achieved robust financial results in 2023. This was driven by a strong fourth quarter, with sales revenue of EUR 87 billion and an increase in operating profit of more then a quarter compared to the previous year. During the year, the Group made further progress with the implementation of its strategy and systematically pushed ahead with its restructuring. The focus was on customer-oriented products and compelling design, in addition to the strengthening of the regions, particularly China and North America. By introducing performance programs in all divisions, the Group has made notable strides towards a sustainable increase in profitability.

The Volkswagen Group increased its deliveries in 2023 by 12 percent to 9.24 million vehicles. All regions contributed to this growth, with Europe (+19.7 percent) and North America (+17.9 percent) being the main drivers. China, the Group's largest single market, grew by 1.6 percent despite a challenging market environment. The Volkswagen Group expanded its market share in Europe as well as North and South America and thus also increased slightly worldwide. Almost all brands recorded growth, in some cases substantial. SEAT/CUPRA achieved the highest increase in the passenger car segment with a rise of 34.6 percent, while MAN led the way in the truck segment with an increase of 37.1 percent. At the same time, the Volkswagen Group successfully continued its transformation and delivered 771,100 fully electric vehicles. This corresponds to an increase of 34.7 percent compared to the previous year. The share of all-electric vehicles in deliveries rose to 8.3 percent compared to 6.9 percent in 2022.

Volkswagen Financial Services have continued the current fiscal year with a solid third quarter. For example, the new contract acquisi-tions worldwide increased by 10.8 percent during the months from January to Sep-tember 2023. The portfolio of current contracts remained stable at just over 22 million. "We continue to see the normalization of the financial services business in terms of earnings that has been apparent since the beginning of the year and feel confirmed in our assessment for 2023," said Dr. Christian Dahlheim, Chairman of the Management Board of Volkswagen Financial Services AG. He added: "We are pleased with the de-velopment of new contracts, which exceeded six million units in the first nine months of the fiscal year. This reflects the improved vehicle availability." Frank Fiedler, CFO of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, noted: "All our forecasts regarding business per-formance are being confirmed. We are therefore sticking to our earnings target, de-spite the numerous global political and macroeconomic uncertainties."

The Volkswagen Group’s Brand Group Core extended cross-brand cooperation in the first nine months of 2023. Further synergy and scale effects were leveraged through disciplined investments and increased cost efficiency between the Volkswagen, ŠKODA, SEAT/CUPRA and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brands. There was a slight increase in the overall effectiveness of the Brand Group – however, performance felt the impact of negative factors such as interruptions in production resulting from the floods in Slovenia.

The Audi Group is following up on a strong first half of the year and reports increased delivery figures after nine months: Between January and September, the Progressive brand group delivered around 1,405,000 Audi, Lamborghini, and Bentley vehicles – 16 percent more than in the same period last year. The increase was particularly strong in the USA and Europe. Revenue rose by 13 percent to €50.4 billion in the first nine months, while the operating profit was €4.6 billion. The operating margin was within the target corridor at 9.1 percent. Once again, the brand with the four rings demonstrated its strength in fully electric models with deliveries of more than 123,000 vehicles – an increase of 60 percent – demonstrating the success of the electrification strategy.