As a business, Volkswagen AG has seen much better days. The latest financial figures reveal that profits have fallen by 30.6 percent.
Volkswagen is still making money. But 2024 was a worse year than usual. Profits fell by a whopping 30.6 percent.
The brand from Wolfsburg has just announced this in a press release about the annual accounts.
According to the brand, it is the increased competition in China and generally higher costs that mean that VW 'only' ended up with a profit of 12.4 billion euros last year.
However, the group does not blame the declining sales in China entirely. Audi's withdrawal from Belgium has also cost it a lot of money.
Here, 3,000 employees have lost their jobs because the Germans have closed one of only two remaining car factories in the entire country.
Volkswagen expects 2025 to be a better year
The Volkswagen Group's operating profit is also not doing too well. It fell by 15 percent, which corresponds to a profit of 19.1 billion euros for the whole of 2024.
It can be changed to the fact that the profit per car has fallen from 7 percent in 2023 to now 5.9 percent in 2024. However, the Germans can note an improvement. Namely in revenue.
A total of 329 billion euros flowed through the VW Group last year. That's an increase of just under one percent. And while that may not sound like much, VW management still expects 2025 to be a better year.
In fact, the annual profit is expected to increase by 5 percent. However, this is not necessarily due to expectations of increased sales, but rather to cutbacks.
By 2030, Volkswagen will be shedding 35,000 employees in Germany alone. This corresponds to just under one in four employees in the passenger car division.
Volkswagen has announced factory closures. Three factories will be closed from normal operations. This is the first time ever that Volkswagen has closed factories in Germany.
The management will now look into whether the factories can be sold on to others in the automotive industry. Apparently, several Chinese brands are interested in taking over where the Germans are leaving.
