The car manufacturer lets the employees participate in the result.
(Photo: AUDI AG)
Ingolstadt Audi has never been so profitable: The adjusted profit margin was 12.2 percent in the past fiscal year, the VW premium subsidiary announced on Thursday. Accordingly, the car manufacturer from Ingolstadt generated a profit of 7.6 billion euros, making it one of the group’s big winners.
A small drop of bitterness for Audi: the competitors were significantly stronger in 2022. BMW presented its figures on Wednesday and achieved a record profit of 18.6 billion euros. The profit margin was 16.5 percent. The bottom line for Mercedes was a profit of 14.8 billion euros and a profit margin of 14.6 percent last year.
Audi also fell short of expectations in terms of sales. Due to the lack of semiconductors, Audi only sold 1.6 million vehicles in the past fiscal year, which is significantly less than hoped for. With the existing factory capacities, Audi could produce more than two million cars a year worldwide. Since the group concentrated on expensive and high-margin vehicles in view of the shortage, sales nevertheless rose by more than 16 percent to 61.8 billion euros.
In terms of cash flow, however, Audi recorded a significant decline from almost 7.8 to 4.8 billion euros. The carmaker justifies this with higher logistics costs and increased investments in the Chinese joint venture Audi FAW.
Audi boss Markus Duesmann is satisfied with the numbers. “In Germany, too, we are noticing the effects of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine very directly. Against the background of this uncertain environment, we can be particularly proud of last year’s result,” explained Duesmann.
In particular, the luxury brand Bentley and the sports car manufacturer Lamborghini, which are included in the Audi result, made high profit contributions. Bentley achieved a margin of 20.9 percent, Lamborghini even 21.9 percent.
Audi allows employees to share in the results. The corporate statement shows that a skilled worker, for example, can count on a share in profits of EUR 8,510 this year, which means an increase of almost EUR 3,000 compared to the previous year.
Weak electronics business in China
Nevertheless, Audi is under pressure in the current financial year. The car manufacturer’s sales figures have been disastrous, especially in the electric growth market of China. In 2022, Audi could not even sell 8,000 electric cars in China. No German premium manufacturer has sold so few e-cars in China.
No improvement is expected this year. The new hopefuls Q6 E-Tron and A6 E-Tron, which are based on the new electric platform PPE, will not be launched in Europe until early 2024, and in China later in the coming year. Because the software was not ready in time, the PPE vehicles are coming onto the market two years late.
>> Read about this: German electric cars fail in China – new figures show the drama of the situation
In terms of sales, Audi is likely to be going head-to-head with Tesla internationally this year. Like Audi, the US electric car manufacturer expects to sell around 1.8 million vehicles in 2023. Should Tesla succeed in selling more cars than Audi, the US group would overtake a German premium manufacturer in sales for the first time.
Ambitious goals for 2023
Audi is currently still benefiting from an order backlog. In the course of the chip crisis, the car manufacturer could not produce as many vehicles as was in demand. The waiting times for some models are up to 18 months. According to corporate circles, the processing of this backlog of orders will continue into the third quarter.
The VW subsidiary is therefore setting itself ambitious goals. In the current financial year, Audi expects a profit margin of between nine and eleven percent. Sales are expected to increase to up to 72 billion euros.
Duesmann also sees itself on course when it comes to electric sales: “The trend towards e-mobility is continuing. In January and February 2023, we delivered almost 40 percent more all-electric vehicles worldwide than in the same period last year,” says the Audi CEO.
More: Ingolstadt is missing competitive electric cars for 2023