Audi: The low level can be a warning signal for the VW model | EUROtoday

Sometimes issues must get quite a bit worse earlier than they’ll get higher. That can be the constructive interpretation of the figures that the automobile producer Audi has simply introduced. The destructive: Audi is in a disaster that’s at the very least as deep as that of its massive sister model Volkswagen.

The model closed the third quarter of the present yr with a loss. Audi’s working outcome was minus 168 million euros. Only the earnings of Bentley, Lamborghini and Ducati put the Audi Group, which mixes these manufacturers, within the black.

In Wolfsburg it is best to take a detailed take a look at the outcomes. Because a part of the Audi catastrophe additionally advantages the VW model. Namely if vegetation are to be closed, which administration is threatening to do.

Audi boss Gernot Döllner can cite an enormous provision as the rationale for his purple numbers: he’s setting apart 1.2 billion euros for the doable closure of the plant in Brussels. Negotiations are nonetheless ongoing with the workers; The finish of manufacturing is scheduled for February.

Once the manufacturing unit is closed, the corporate’s prices lower. Seen on this approach, the 1.2 billion euros could possibly be seen as an funding in future financial stability. But in fact saving alone is just not sufficient. Costs are usually not the one issue at the moment weighing closely on Audi.

The predominant drawback is administration errors. For years, Audi’s massive, proud improvement division has not managed to convey new fashions onto the market within the allotted time.

Part of the issue is the tough collaboration between Audi and the VW software program subsidiary Cariad, which for its half doesn’t (didn’t) work correctly. Now many new automobiles are coming years late, and Döllner is bringing an actual flood of fashions onto the market subsequent yr. This prices cash and impacts gross sales figures.

The Audi boss speaks of a yr of transition. You also can name it a yr of disaster. Sales figures haven’t solely collapsed in China. Even in its residence market of Germany, Audi is lagging behind its opponents. While a complete of six % extra automobiles had been newly registered in October than in the identical interval final yr, the quantity for Audi shrank by nearly 20 %. BMW and Mercedes-Benz, alternatively, had 5 % extra new registrations and the VW model had a rise of greater than 26 %.

When automobile producers have introduced new fashions however they aren’t but in sellers, declines in gross sales are usually not unusual within the trade. However, if doable, this transition shouldn’t final too lengthy. At Audi the top remains to be open. Eight new fashions have been introduced for subsequent yr and one other three for 2026. These should first attain the shoppers.

Until issues get higher once more, issues could possibly be tight for Audi. The automobile market as an entire is underneath stress, and earnings at nearly all firms have fallen considerably. But no premium producer is as deeply in disaster because the VW subsidiary. In the previous 9 months, the Audi model barely managed a revenue margin of two.5 %.

This is just barely greater than that of the VW model (2.1 %). If you embrace different sister firms, corresponding to Skoda at VW, then the numbers look solely barely higher. However, the Audi Group remains to be a great distance from the goal of twelve %, to be achieved in 2027.

Döllner took over the helm at Audi a yr in the past and has modified quite a bit since then. The firm has been given a brand new organizational construction, and Döllner himself has taken over the administration of the event division. However, it takes years within the German auto trade for brand new constructions to take impact and for the product on the highway to alter. It is questionable whether or not Audi has that a lot time.

One factor is evident: issues must get higher at Audi in a short time. Even worse can be deadly.

Daniel Zwick is a enterprise editor and stories for WELT on all matters from the Auto trade.