Dusseldorf The persistent lack of chips hit the VW group hard in the third quarter. Because there were not enough semiconductors and therefore significantly fewer cars than planned could be produced, the volume group with the brands Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Skoda and Seat was operationally in the red from July to September. However, because the premium brands Porsche and Audi continue to do comparatively well, the group is sticking to its annual targets and does not have to issue a profit warning.
Because of the chip crisis, sales and vehicle sales fell significantly in the third quarter. Revenues fell from July to September compared to the same period last year by 4.1 percent to 56.3 billion euros, announced the Wolfsburg-based automaker on Thursday. In terms of sales, the decline was even more pronounced, at almost 30 percent.
Like most other car manufacturers, the VW Group uses the scarce semiconductors where they promise the most returns. At Volkswagen, the premium brands Porsche and Audi are accordingly less affected by the chip crisis. The opposite happens with the volume brands, they suffer more from the lack of supply.
All in all, this means that operating profit in the third quarter did not fall as sharply as total vehicle sales, namely by twelve percent to 2.8 billion euros. In terms of after-tax earnings, the VW Group even comes out with a slight plus of 5.6 percent to 2.9 billion euros. Volkswagen benefits from changes in the financial and investment result as well as tax payments.
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CEO Herbert Diess rated the red numbers of Volkswagen cars, Skoda and Seat as a warning signal. “The results of the third quarter show once again that we now have to systematically drive the improvement in productivity in the volume area,” he said in the morning.
CFO warns of persistent problems in German plants
For weeks there has been an intense debate in Wolfsburg about how things should go with Volkswagen, especially in Germany. In a supervisory board meeting at the end of September, CEO Diess had warned that VW could lose up to 30,000 jobs if countermeasures are not taken in good time. This has led to a sharp conflict with the works council in the past few days. The strong employee representation forced the CEO on Wednesday to have to answer questions at a works meeting in the coming week.
CFO Arno Antlitz also warned of persistent problems, especially in the German plants. “The semiconductor bottleneck in the third quarter made it clear to us that we are not yet resilient enough to fluctuations in utilization,” he said. The management wants to increase productivity in German plants and thus lower the breakeven point. So far, VW has only earned money in its German factories when they are 70 to 80 percent full. Due to the lack of chips, the utilization was significantly lower in the past few weeks.
In the case of the premium brands of the VW Group, however, there is not much of the crisis to be felt; this is particularly true of the sports car subsidiary Porsche. The Stuttgart-based company has achieved a return on sales of 15.5 percent after the first nine months of this year and remains one of the most profitable car manufacturers in the world despite the global chip crisis.
From January to September, Porsche sales rose by ten percent to 23 billion euros, and operating profit rose by 78 percent to 3.6 billion euros. “We can be proud, but we also have to act in absolute task force mode in the fourth quarter,” said CFO Lutz Meschke on request. The chip crisis does not leave Porsche completely without a trace. The Stuttgart-based company has a very high order backlog and could actually sell significantly more cars. Porsche is responding to this with stricter cost management.
The electric car is Porsche’s new best seller.
(Photo: AP)
Things are also looking comparatively good at Audi in Ingolstadt. After nine months, the premium subsidiary has a turnover of 40.4 billion euros and an operating result of 3.9 billion euros, which corresponds to a return of 9.7 percent. Audi benefits from comparatively strong demand, which, for example, also allows price increases to increase returns.
On the other hand, things are not looking as good at Volkswagen Passenger Cars. 1.6 billion euros with sales of 55.5 billion euros result in a meager return of 2.9 percent. Skoda also has to cut corners and comes up with a return of 6.8 percent. Before the chip crisis, the Czech subsidiary had reached the Audi level. The situation in Spain is difficult: Seat is in the red after nine months.
Volkswagen nevertheless reaffirmed the return forecast for the entire group, which was raised after the record profit in the middle of the year. Accordingly, the Wolfsburg-based company expect a return of between six and 7.5 percent both before and after special items. Group sales are expected to be significantly higher than in the previous year. Europe’s largest automaker did relatively well with its quarterly balance sheet. The US rivals Ford and General Motors had suffered a significantly larger drop in profits. Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois spoke of “strong figures” for sales and returns.
However, Volkswagen has to cut back on its sales planning. The persistent lack of chips means that the group will produce fewer cars than planned. So far, the Wolfsburg had announced that they would deliver “noticeably” more vehicles in 2021 compared to the previous year. Now the forecast is that only the previous year’s result can be achieved, i.e. 9.3 million vehicles.
More: VW boss Diess now wants to take part in the works meeting