Reuters had access to a message published on Volkswagen's intranet site in which brand chief Thomas Schaefer admitted partial and early retirements are planned.
Short answer: They’re profitable (In the billions), but on a company that big their profit margins are very slim, about 7%.
People see a profit of 16-20 Billion and think the company must be rolling in it, but as a percentage they’re not doing great and I can see why the CEO is concerned.
Schaefer’s actually talking about the Volkswagen brand, which is even worse, at around 3% — Audi and Porsche are doing fine, but they’re being dragged down by Volkswagen. A bigger problem for Volkswagen right now is they invested wildly into EVs, and are now having trouble justifying those expenses while their AV and SDV efforts flounder. Not long ago the committed figure was a staggering $193B for all three, which means they have a lot of cars to sell.
Short answer: They’re profitable (In the billions), but on a company that big their profit margins are very slim, about 7%.
People see a profit of 16-20 Billion and think the company must be rolling in it, but as a percentage they’re not doing great and I can see why the CEO is concerned.
Schaefer’s actually talking about the Volkswagen brand, which is even worse, at around 3% — Audi and Porsche are doing fine, but they’re being dragged down by Volkswagen. A bigger problem for Volkswagen right now is they invested wildly into EVs, and are now having trouble justifying those expenses while their AV and SDV efforts flounder. Not long ago the committed figure was a staggering $193B for all three, which means they have a lot of cars to sell.
Yeah 3% is bad, as in a slight change of the prime rate and you’re bankrupt bad. I’m not surprised they’re in cutback mode.
What do you mean by AV and SDV?