The Volkswagen Group have announced solid results and operating margins for 2021. A profit was achieved despite strong headwinds from semiconductor shortages that led to a decrease in vehicle sales of around 600,000 units compared to 2020. This was 2.4 million fewer units than 2019.
The company increased its overall resilience and improved its capabilities to cope with the constraints. Electric vehicles (EVs) proved popular and extremely resilient for the Group despite global semi-conductor shortages.
Overhead costs were successfully reduced, capex discipline was high and the break-even was lowered. At the same time, Volkswagen drove its transformation to NEW AUTO forward.
Volkswagen’s successful e-offensive continued to pick up speed with global deliveries of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), including the ID.3 and ID.4 models, almost doubling to 452,900 units.
The Group is the European market leader for BEVs with a market share of about 25 percent and achieved the number two position in the key US market with about 7.5 percent. In China, 92,700 BEVs were delivered, more than four times the figure for 2020.
As a cornerstone for becoming a sustainable and software-driven mobility provider, the Group is investing in the extension of its capabilities in software development and autonomous driving, as well as the expansion of its portfolio of battery-electric vehicles.
The brand’s electric vehicle sales figures are impressive and increasing at a rapid rate. With the world becoming switched on to electric vehicles and global oil prices rising massively, it will be interesting to see if this figure doubles again for 2022.
Arno Antlitz, Volkswagen Group CFO, said: “Over the past two years, we have learned to better mitigate the impact of crises on our company. I am confident that we will make the best possible use of these experiences to stay on track in these difficult times.
“In 2021 we enhanced our overall robustness by achieving better margins, reducing overhead costs, lowering our break-even and keeping capex discipline. Our rewards were solid results and cash flows.
“At the same time, we made no compromise when it comes to future investments and moved ahead in becoming a sustainable, software-driven mobility provider.”
