{"id":154861,"date":"2020-10-29T15:53:56","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T19:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=154861"},"modified":"2020-10-29T15:59:55","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T19:59:55","slug":"vw-latest-automaker-to-post-profitable-third-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2020\/10\/vw-latest-automaker-to-post-profitable-third-quarter\/","title":{"rendered":"VW Latest Automaker to Post Profitable Third Quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Frank Witter, Volkswagen CFO, said the company was well positioned to handle the impact of the pandemic is having on the automaker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Volkswagen AG is the latest global automaker to emerge from the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting a third-quarter operating profit of $3.8 billion on revenue of $69.3 billion.<\/p>\n

The results were off from year-ago results of $4.8 billion, but certainly and uptick compared with the company\u2019s second quarter when it lost $1.7 billion due to slow sales in two of its three biggest markets: Europe and North America.<\/p>\n

However, the positive result for the just-ended quarter came as a result of increased demand for luxury vehicles in China, which drove a 3% sales increase during the period. That push for big-money cars offset an overall 1.1% drop in overall sales. The want for vehicles in China is coming ahead of expected improvements in the U.S. and European markets where the pandemic is still crimping sales.<\/p>\n

(New Volkswagen ID.3 EV slammed by influential German auto magazine.)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The strong quarter allowed Volkswagen to bank some cash, the automaker noting its net liquidity rose to $28.9 billion from $21.8 billion at the end of the second quarter.<\/p>\n

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Volkswagen’s production facilities are back online, and the company is showing improved results.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

China suffered through the problem first \u00ad\u2013 it began there \u2013 and naturally emerged first. Things are much closer to normal there than in other markets. U.S. automakers are just now getting vehicle production levels back to pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n

\u201c(T)he clear recovery trend in the third quarter shows how robustly our company is positioned,\u201d Volkswagen Chief Financial Officer Frank Witter said in a statement. Not only did we get a grip on the acute effects of the pandemic and achieved a return to profitability.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the good news for VW is tempered by a second wave of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and Europe. The latest revival of the coronavirus led governments in France and Germany to order their countries back into strict national lockdowns on Wednesday, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

(Volkswagen suffers Q2 loss; board publicly backs CEO Diess.)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe coronavirus remains a central problem,\u201d Witter said in a conference call with reporters. \u201cThis situation now is anything but relaxed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Volkswagen has designated $66 billion to bring more than 50 EVs to market in the next few years, including the ID.4.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Witter believes the automaker is well-positioned to handle future difficulties, in part because of the continuing demand for luxury vehicles as well as the implementation of cost-cutting measures it began earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this challenging situation, we also succeeded in making significant progress in implementing our strategy, for example by further expanding e-mobility and strengthening our digital competence, and in maintaining the financial leeway required for the substantial investments in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepending on the future course of the pandemic, we are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to continue to stabilize our business in the remaining months of the year and to put the Volkswagen\u00a0Group on a sustainably firm footing for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Volkswagen making $2B wager on China\u2019s EV market.)<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Through the first nine months, the company delivered 6.5 million vehicles globally, which is down from 8 million for the same period last year \u2014 an 18.7% drop. Despite that, it managed to grab a little bit of market share, getting a 0.4 percentage-point increase to 13 percent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volkswagen AG is the latest global automaker to emerge from the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting a third-quarter operating profit of $3.8 billion on revenue of $69.3 billion. Get the details at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":154863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,12],"tags":[],"make":[113],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,286,150,151,123,287,133,131,289,299,132,130,284,125,148,290,128,291,288,232],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154861"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=154861"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=154861"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=154861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}