VW Group 2020 operating profit halved to RM49.3 bil

The Volkswagen Group revealed in a statement that its operating profit for 2020 before special items (related to the Dieselgate scandal) was about 10 billion euros (RM49.3 billion), which is nearly half of the 19.3 billion euros (RM95.1 billion) it recorded in 2019.

Detailed figures will be announced on its annual press conference on March 16, but according to the statement, stronger sales in the second half of 2020 helped keep the automaker in the black. “The deliveries to customers of the Volkswagen Group continued to recover strongly in the fourth quarter and even exceeded the deliveries of the third quarter 2020,” VW said in a statement.

This particular trend was evident for most car brand, but nevertheless, sales had to take a hit when most markets went into a pandemic induced lockdown. Due to this, Volkswagen’s year-on-year sales dipped – in 2020, it sold a total of 9,305,400 vehicles globally, which is -15.2% down from 10,975,300 vehicles delivered in 2019. Still, VW holds 12.9% of the global passenger car market share.

Under its umbrella are brands such as Audi, Skoda, Seat, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, Bugatti, and several commercial vehicle makes. Nearly every single brand saw a sales decline in 2020, some as much as -27.5%. However, VW Group said its net cash flow last year was about 6 billion euros (RM29.56 billion).

Besides Dieselgate costs, VW also said it missed EU targets on CO2 emissions from its passenger car fleet last year, and faces a fine of more than 100 million euros (RM492.7 million).

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