Volkswagen Reports A 30 Percent Decline In Earnings

Volkswagen announced today that its net profit in the first half of this year fell by more than 30 percent year-on-year, and the company further worsened the forecast for the whole of 2026 and announced a three percent drop in revenue instead of the previously announced slight growth.

In the first six months of this year, Volkswagen achieved revenue of 158.1 billion euros, while the operating profit fell by almost 12 percent, to 5.93 billion euros, “Wirtschaftswoche” reports.

Volkswagen’s net profit in the second quarter of 2026 alone fell by 32.9 percent, from 2.29 billion to 1.54 billion euros.

The operating margin slipped to 3.8 percent, the lowest level since the pandemic year of 2020, while the company maintained its goal of achieving a margin of between four and 5.5 percent by the end of the year.

Total vehicle deliveries in the second quarter of 2026 decreased by almost nine percent, to 2.08 million cars, while sales in the Chinese market fell by more than a third, to 424,300 vehicles, “Handelsblatt” reports.

The management of Volkswagen states that, in addition to the price war in China, the business was additionally burdened by American tariffs, geopolitical tensions, wars, increasingly strong competition, and one-time costs of around 900 million euros.

Managing Director Oliver Blume assessed that the restructuring of the company is already yielding results, but he emphasized that additional cost reduction is needed.

Financial director Arno Antlitz warned that profitability is still “at an unacceptably low level” and assessed that the new results are another warning that decisive measures are necessary.

Volkswagen plans to reduce general costs by an additional 11 billion euros by the end of the decade, and from that goal comes a plan to eliminate about 50,000 jobs, primarily in administrative and indirect jobs.

These measures would be in addition to an already existing plan according to which Volkswagen intends to cut 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030, of which 35,000 will be within the parent brand.

The new plans have met with strong opposition from unions, the works council, and the state of Lower Saxony, which, with 20 percent ownership, has significant influence on the company’s supervisory board.

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