Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV) has ended the third quarter of 2022 with clear bottom-line growth: after nine months, the operating profit is at 356 million euros, 301 million euros above the figure for the same period last year. The positive development of the bottom line thus continued in the third quarter. Turnover also went up year-on-year, totalling after nine months 7.956 billion euros (prior year: 7.3 billion euros). Return on sales rose correspondingly to 4.5 per cent and was thus also well up on last year (0.8 per cent). In a challenging market environment units shipped fell back by 18.2 per cent to 234,400 vehicles. The Hannover-based commercial vehicle specialists are thus on a par here with the industry average. In the European Economic Area, on the other hand, VWCV’s market share in its core commercial vehicle business grew slightly in the first nine months of the year by almost one per cent. In Germany in particular market share grew pleasingly, going up by 3.3 per cent to 25.3 per cent. VWCV thus remains clear market leader here. Overall, with slight growth in units shipped by 3 per cent to 72,700 and an increase in orders received of 11.2 per cent, the German market showed itself to be extremely robust
“In the third quarter too we continued to profit from the fundamental quality of our vehicles with very good sales. Furthermore, the positive bottom-line trend is being supported by strict discipline on cost and expenditure, high used vehicle residual values and growth in the after-sales business”, explained Michael Obrowski, Brand Management Board Member for Finance and IT at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.
The order backlog at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles remained high across all model lines in the third quarter. For the fourth quarter the brand has therefore put in place an ambitious programme in production in order to further reduce the order backlog and the resultant waiting times for customers.
Lars Krause, Brand Management Board Member for Sales and Marketing at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles explained: “Despite the year-on-year decline in deliveries, I am pleased about VWCV’s strong market position in almost all markets. We are doing well in our commercial vehicle business and especially in the important German market remain clear market leaders with appreciable gains in market share.”
In the third quarter, VWCV celebrated with the pick-up Amarok the second world premiere this year. Along with the all-electric ID. Buzz, it was the highlight at the IAA Transportation show in Hannover in September.
“Even before the launch at our dealerships, we’ve been able since the start of advance sales to already sell more than 20,000 ID. Buzz”, said a delighted Krause. “With their availability in the showrooms, we are now expecting a further surge in demand. And the Amarok successor, with sales due to start before the end of the year, is likewise in the starting blocks. Both vehicles increase the attractiveness of our brand enormously!”
Added focus on the development of autonomous driving
In the development of the SDS (self-driving system) technology for its autonomously driving vehicles, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles will in future be working with a another partner, an announcement about which will be made shortly. As a consequence of this strategic decision Volkswagen is not investing any further in Argo AI and is withdrawing as a shareholder from the company. The plans to have MOIA providing a first customer offering using self-driving ID. Buzz vehicles in Hamburg as of 2025 are unchanged by this decision. “This step is also being accompanied by increased collaboration within the Group for developing highly automated and autonomous driving”, explains Christian Senger, who has been appointed Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Brand Management Board Member responsible for MaaS/TaaS and AD (Mobility and Transport as a Service; Autonomous Driving). Through this appointment too the brand and the Group are underlining the importance of future mobility offerings, including autonomous driving.
SOURCE: Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles