The Volkswagen Group suffered another decline in profits in the second quarter. Between April and June, group earnings after taxes fell by 32.9 percent to 1.54 billion euros, as VW announced in a press release. In the second quarter of 2025, Volkswagen still earned a total of 2.29 billion euros. That was already 36 percent less than a year earlier.
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Sales figures in China weigh on earnings
Deliveries across the group fell by almost 9 percent to 2.08 million vehicles, as the group had previously announced. In the important market of China, sales even fell by more than a third to 424,300 vehicles. Away from China, however, sales looked somewhat better and the outlook for the rest of the year doesn’t look bad for the group either. A whole series of small models based on the MEB+ platform are now finally rolling out to showrooms. These include, among others, VW ID. Polo, VW ID. Cross, Skoda Epiq and Cupra Raval.
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Nevertheless, Volkswagen boss Oliver Blume cut the sales forecast for the current year. Instead of an increase in sales of up to 3 percent compared to the previous year, the manager now only expects “stable development” in 2026 in the best case scenario. But there could also be up to 3 percent less revenue, as the company announced.
Sales up, profits down
In the second quarter, sales increased by two percent to 82.4 billion euros, but after the first six months the balance is only almost balanced. The operating result fell by around a tenth to 3.47 billion euros in the quarter, which was weaker than experts expected. The profit after taxes was 1.54 billion euros.
Audi and Porsche remain problem children in the group for the time being. In the second quarter, Audi’s sales fell from 17.1 to 15 billion euros, and the operating result was once again somewhat weaker than the year before. At Porsche AG, sales in the car business – i.e. excluding financial services – fell from 8.3 to 7.8 billion euros. After the high special costs in the same period last year, the operating profit recovered slightly from 154 million to 692 million euros. However, the operating margin in day-to-day business remained at 8.9 percent, well below Porsche’s usual level.
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External headwinds
Tariffs, wars, geopolitical tensions and increasingly tough competition caused headwinds, CEO Oliver Blume had already explained in the spring. He is therefore planning new cost-cutting measures with significant cuts: up to 50,000 jobs worldwide and four plants in Germany are under review – in addition to the 50,000 jobs that are already to be cut by 2030.
Resistance to new savings plans
There is already strong headwind from the union and the works council. Likewise from the state of Lower Saxony, which has a 20 percent stake in VW and has two members on the supervisory board. Together with the employees, they make up the majority there. According to reports, the plans initially fell through in the committee.
Volkswagen has already announced that it will cut 50,000 jobs across the group by 2030. 35,000 jobs are to be lost at the core VW brand, the rest at Volkswagen brands such as Audi and Porsche. More than 37,000 employees have already signed corresponding agreements.
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