The bottom line is that Volkswagen makes more profit

The Volkswagen Group also posted higher profits last year and benefited from improvements in day-to-day operations. The result after tax rose from 15.8 billion euros last year to 17.9 billion euros, the DAX group announced in Berlin on Wednesday. That is an increase of about 13 percent.

Europe’s largest car company had already presented the majority of its figures at the beginning of March. Thanks to a 12 percent increase in deliveries, turnover increased by 15.5 percent to 322.3 billion euros. However, operating profit only rose by more than two percent to 22.6 billion euros, partly due to the costs of securing raw materials. The group had already made a proposal for an increased dividend to 9.06 euros per preference share.

The group with its core brands VW, Skoda, Seat and VW Bedrijfswagens (VWN) increased its return on turnover from 3.6 percent to 5.3 percent, which was mainly due to the increase in turnover, it was said. Doing business with mass brands is not as profitable as CEO Oliver Blume would like, which is why a multi-billion dollar job cuts program is underway in the region.

However, for the brand group around Audi, there would have been a better margin in 2023 without the costs of securing raw materials. The software division Cariad increased its operating loss to 2.4 billion euros. The financial services sector performed weaker than in previous record years. (rbu/sda/awp/dpa)