Volkswagen cuts 2024 outlook as car demand falters

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Volkswagen cuts 2024

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

as car demand falters

A VW Golf GTI stands in a parking lot within sight of the brand tower on the grounds of the VW plant in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Julian Stratenschulte| Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Volkswagen cut its annual

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for the second time in less than three months on Friday, citing a weaker-than-expected performance at its passenger car division as pressure on Europe’s top automaker continues to rise.

The lowered

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 is the latest from Germany’s car giants, with 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 both downgrading their annual forecasts earlier this month as a result of weakening demand in China, the world’s biggest car market.

It also comes two days after Volkswagen kicked off crucial talks with IG Metall, Germany’s most powerful union, over pay and job protection, a 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 that could lead to the first ******* factory closures in the carmaker’s history.

Volkswagen now expects a profit margin of around 5.6% in 2024, down from 6.5-7% previously and below the 6.5% LSEG estimate, while sales are expected to fall by 0.7% to 320 billion euros ($356.7 billion) after the company had initially expected an increase of up to 5%.

Volkswagen said it was cutting its

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

“in light of a challenging market environment and developments that have fallen short of original expectations, particularly at the brands Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Tech. Components”.

The ******* carmaker, which owns majority stakes in Porsche and truck giant Traton also cut its

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for global deliveries to around 9 million, down from a prior forecast of a rise of up to 3% from 9.24 million vehicles in 2023.

Porsche, the holding company of the Porsche and Piech families that holds most of the voting rights in Volkswagen and is the carmaker’s single biggest shareholder, also cut its own

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in the wake of Volkswagen’s downgrade.

Falling demand

Frankfurt-listed shares in Volkswagen and Porsche were trading 0.7% and 1.6% lower, respectively.

A softening global economy has hit Germany’s export-oriented economy at a time when a painful shortage of skilled labor and high energy prices and cheaper ****** rivals have already cranked up the pressure on local industrial heavyweights, including Thyssenkrupp and BASF.

The problems have also 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 Germany’s tested model for consensual relations with 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, seen as a strength in times of growing demand but turning into a liability of sorts when cost increases outpace salary expectations.

The fate of the auto industry and pressure from China are global issues, hitting Europe’s car elite that has 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 with keeping plants running at full capacity.

In the U.S. presidential election, *********** nominee Donald Trump has suggested that China could dominate future auto production, while the Democratic Biden administration has accused China of flooding global markets with auto exports because of overcapacity and is proposing rules that would effectively bar nearly all ******** cars from entering the U.S. market.

Volkswagen, which is scheduled to report third-quarter results on Oct. 30, said it now expects net cash flow of its automotive division of around 2 billion euros, down from 2.5 billion to 4.5 billion previously.

($1 = 0.8971 euros)

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Volkswagen #cuts #

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#car #demand #falters

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up