VW Profits Up 15%; China’s Automakers Also Doing Well

(First published in TheTruthAboutCars on October 31, 2008 )

VeeDub in Germany has just issued their numbers for the past nine months of 2008. Viewed through the prevailing “the world is coming to an end” perspective, VW’s financial results are financial pornography, performing better than the male lead in a Russ Meyer movie. We’re talking a 15 percent gain, a money shot of more than $6b pretax. From January to September 2008, VW moved 4.8m units and grabbed a 10.1 percent share of the world market, according to the usually reliable Automobilwoche [sub]. Despite of what’s happening elsewhere in the piston business, Volkswagen’s CFO Hans-Dieter Pötsch stands by his bullish guidance for 2008: the predicted numbers will ... come.

Elsewhere, China’s automakers have also released profit reports for the third quarter. From July to September, the 17 companies combined automotive revenues totaled 47.385b yuan ($6.93b), down a mere 2.9 percentage points from last year. Their net profits drooped to 747m yuan, down - oops - 62.4 percent year-on-year, laments the government’s news agency Xinhua via Gasgoo. Never mind. Profits aren’t a Chinese company’s main objective; they often leave that to their presence in Hong Kong, where taxes are low. The notable news: they ain’t losing money.
That said, China’s bad boys are from Detroit’s central casting: China’s former car giant Shanghai GM has completed only 54 percent of its 2008 sales goal. In a wise move, the joint venture reduced this year’s sales target of its Chevrolet brand by 25 percent. Likewise, big cheese Chinese automaker FAW reduced 2008 targets for its Magotan (think VW Passat B6 platform) to 70k units from the 90k target set in January. Which didn’t faze Wolfsburg one bit.

(Picture courtesy of alexisgentry.net. Thank you!)