In view of the Ukraine war: VW subsidiary AUDI does not dare to make a forecast for 2022

CFO Jürgen Rittersberger said on Thursday in Ingolstadt: “In March and April we see significant burdens on the production side.” How this can be caught up in the second half of the year and how the war will still affect the global economy is currently not foreseeable.

AUDI has so far sourced all custom wiring harnesses for its European-built cars from Ukraine. “That will give us headaches for many weeks to come,” said Purchasing Manager Dirk Große-Loheide. “We’ve been in production for about ten days.” The first replacement deliveries are now coming from Romania. More are planned from Hungary, Tunisia, Morocco, China and Mexico. The purchasing director therefore “assumes that we can start up again in the short term, and that too in a relatively stable manner”.

CEO Markus Duesmann expressed his admiration for suppliers in the Ukraine who tried to continue producing: “Production continues there within walking distance of a bunker, sometimes in three shifts. It leaves me speechless at the extent to which the Ukrainians are operating there.”

The supply of semiconductors has improved somewhat. AUDI was able to produce properly in January and February, said Rittersberger. A further relaxation is to be expected in the second half of the year. Große-Loheide emphasized that the crisis was not over yet, that semiconductors were scarce, “but we can handle it”. Due to a lack of chips, only AUDI production is currently in Bratislava.

Last year, AUDI sold 1.7 million cars due to a lack of semiconductors, but generated sales of 53 billion euros and a record result of 5.5 billion euros. The company was able to cancel discounts and implement its “premium price strategy”, said sales manager Hildegard Wortmann. Lamborghini contributed almost 400 million euros to the good result with just 8,405 sports cars sold. The operating return on sales of the AUDI Group including China business was 12.5 percent.

While the competitor BMW relies on openness to technology, Duesmann called for “technology clarity” in the automotive industry. AUDI relies on the battery car. In four years, AUDI wants to have more than 20 all-electric models on offer and launch its last new combustion engine model. In China, where the company sold around 700,000 cars last year, AUDI will start building an electric car factory this year. In addition, Duesmann wants to expand development in the People’s Republic in order to be able to react better to the wishes of Chinese customers.

Before the outbreak of war, AUDI had planned to deliver 1.8 to 1.9 million cars this year with the Premium brand group of the Volkswagen Group – which also includes Lamborghini, Ducati and, more recently, Bentley. The sales of Lamborghini and Bentley are of secondary importance in the brand group with around 23,000 cars together in 2021. The operating return should therefore be between 9 and 11 percent thanks to continued high sales prices, with sales of between 62 and 65 billion euros.

Together, the brand group wants to save costs in the high three-digit million euro range in the coming years, for example by working together on electric drives. More than 3 million cars are to be delivered in 2030 with an operating return on sales of over 11 percent.

/rol/men

INGOLSTADT (dpa-AFX)

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