Audi: Profits fall by more than a third, return falls to 1.8 percent

Tariffs imposed by US PresidentDonald Trump (79), costs for the company's restructuring, and weak business in China caused Audi 's profit to collapse in the first half of the year. At €1.3 billion, the surplus was 37.5 percent lower than the same period last year, the Volkswagen -owned automaker announced on Monday. This is the third time in a row that the first half of the year has been significantly worse than the previous year. In 2022, the Ingolstadt-based company reported a profit of €4.4 billion. The VW Group had already released figures on Audi's operating business before the weekend.

Audi has lowered its forecast for the current year. Sales expectations shrank by 2.5 billion to between 65 and 70 billion euros, and the return on investment is also expected to be considerably lower, at 5 to 7 percent instead of 7 to 9 percent. However, this does not yet take into account the EU 's customs deal with the USA , which US PresidentDonald Trump (79) and EU President Ursula von der Leyen (66) agreed on Sunday evening. This is currently being evaluated, the company said. There are no details or anything in writing yet, said CFO Jürgen Rittersberger (53). In principle, however, the company is pleased that it is now possible to plan.

Rittersberger further stated that the US tariffs increased in the spring alone cost Audi around 600 million euros in the first half of the year. Audi, which, unlike competitor BMW , does not have its own factory in the USA, did not pass on the additional costs caused by the tariffs to its customers in the USA, but such a step is costly. Rittersberger did not say how things will proceed in this regard – they will try to find the right compromise between price and volume.

The CFO cited the costs of restructuring the group as another reason for the current decline. In the spring, Audi announced, among other things, the elimination of 7,500 jobs in Germany by 2029 and had already set aside provisions for this. These impacted earnings in the first half of the year by €600 million, but the initial positive effects of the so-called future agreement have already offset half of this impact.

In addition, sales shrank in the first half of the year, particularly in China, but also in the USA. Both markets are currently challenging for many automakers. In China, fierce price competition continues, especially in the electric segment. Audi is hoping for new models there.

The return on equity of the Audi Group, which includes the Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, and Ducati brands, plummeted from 6.4 percent to 3.3 percent in the first half of the year. The Audi brand alone achieved a return of only 1.8 percent, which was below the return of the long-weakening core brand Volkswagen.

The current figures further underline that Audi CEO Gernot Döllner (56) has so far failed to get the company under control with his sometimes brutal methods . The launch of the new generation of the A8 luxury sedan, one of Audi's most important models, will likely be postponed again, according to information from manager magazin.