According to the earnings report released by Volkswagen on Tuesday, the profit decline in the first quarter exceeded expectations, as falling car sales and the cost of launching new models dragged down profitability.
The company said first-quarter operating profit fell 20% to 4.6 billion euros, lower than analysts' expectations, and reaffirmed full-year expectations.
Volkswagen Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said: “As expected, our first-quarter results showed a slow start to the year. The strong performance in March, the solid order pool, and the improvement in order volume over the past few months are encouraging and should have had a positive impact on the second quarter.”
It wasn't just Volkswagen that had a tough start to this year. Earlier on Tuesday, the Mercedes-Benz Group reported that first-quarter earnings fell by about one-third due to model changes and sluggish demand for electric vehicles in Asia. On Monday, Volkswagen's Porsche announced its worst quarterly results since it went public in September 2022, causing its stock price to drop.