Auto-First | Liu Tianming
Under the multiple influences of chip shortage and the epidemic, in 2021, Volkswagen Group achieved double growth in revenue and profit in the case of overall sales decline by virtue of luxury brands, rich product portfolio and pricing advantages.
According to the 2021 financial report released by Volkswagen Group on the evening of March 15, the annual operating income of 2021 reached 250.2 billion euros, an increase of 12% over the same period last year, the gross profit reached 47.241 billion euros, an increase of 21.29% year-on-year, the operating profit not included in the expenditure of special projects doubled to 20 billion euros, and the after-tax profit increased by 74.8% year-on-year to 15.4 billion euros.
Among them, the operating income of the automobile business was 206.237 billion euros, an increase of 13.25% year-on-year, and the gross profit reached 38.592 billion euros, an increase of 22.13% over the same period last year. The financial services business revenue increased by 7.81% year-on-year to EUR 43,963 million, and gross profit reached EUR 8,649 million, an increase of 17.7% year-on-year.
Volkswagen Group's profits come mainly from luxury brands. According to the annual report, the EBIT of the Volkswagen Group's passenger car business will reach 13.8 billion euros in 2021, with a profit margin of 8%. The EBIT of the Volkswagen brand passenger cars was 2.503 billion euros, with a profit margin of only 3.3%, and the EBIT of the Skoda brand was 1.083 billion euros, with a profit margin of 6.1%. The EBIT of the Audi brand amounted to 5.546 billion euros with a profit margin of 10.5 percent, while the Porsche brand made an EBIT of 5.006 billion euros, with a profit margin of 16.5 percent.
The Volkswagen Group noted that the rapid growth in performance stemmed from a robust business model, overall resilience and a significant reduction in indirect costs. In addition, the higher EBIT margin and sales growth of luxury brands also contributed to the performance of the Volkswagen Group.
In 2021, the Volkswagen Group sold 8.6 million units, down 6.3% year-on-year. By brand, Volkswagen brand passenger cars delivered 4.8969 million new cars globally, down 8.1% year-on-year, Audi brand delivered 1.6805 million new cars globally, down 0.7% from the same period last year, Porsche brand delivered 301,900 new cars globally, an increase of 10.9% year-on-year, and Bentley brand delivered nearly 14,700 new cars globally, an increase of 30.8% year-on-year, which is the highest growing brand under the Volkswagen Group.
In addition to the outstanding sales performance of luxury brands, the volkswagen group's electric vehicle delivery volume also showed a rapid increase, with the annual delivery of pure electric vehicles reaching 452,900 units, and the number of vehicles nearly doubled. The Volkswagen Group is the European leader in the pure electric vehicle market, accounting for about 25% of the market share and the second place in the US market with a market share of about 7.5%. A total of 92,700 electric vehicles were delivered in China, more than four times the number of deliveries in fiscal 2020.
Arno Antlitz, chief financial officer of volkswagen group, said that despite the severe impact of chip shortages, in 2021, volkswagen group still improved the soundness of the overall business, achieving strong performance and stable cash flow. In the North and South American markets, Volkswagen brands have ushered in an important turning point, with high-end brands and financial services making great contributions.
It is worth mentioning that volkswagen group not only achieves open source, but also achieves throttling. In 2021, Volkswagen launched an indirect cost management project to improve its competitiveness and provide financial support for the Group's full electrification and digital transformation. The Group achieved ahead of schedule its target of cutting indirect costs (excluding R&D and capital expenditures) by 2023. Compared to 2019, the Group saved 4 billion euros in costs.
At the annual report press conference, the Volkswagen Group introduced the update on the NEW AUTO strategy, and Herbert Diess, CEO of volkswagen group, pointed out that last July, the Volkswagen Group released the NEW AUTO strategy, proposing to transform the group into a sustainable software-driven mobility service provider by 2030. In less than a year, the Volkswagen Group has achieved significant milestones on all four platforms and is steadily creating new profit sources for the future, and will make every effort to shape the future of mobility.
Among them, the cooperation based on the MEB platform continues to expand, and Ford Motor will launch a second pure electric vehicle model based on the Volkswagen MEB platform, and the production of Ford MEB models will double to 1.2 million units in the next six years.
For the SSP (Scalable System Platform) platform, the Volkswagen Group will build a new plant next to the main plant in Wolfsburg to produce the trinity, the first Volkswagen brand model based on the SSP (Scalable System Platform) platform.
In addition, the Volkswagen Group will invest 800 million euros in research and development centers focused on the development of SSP platforms. In the future, the SSP platform will be the Group's only production platform for the production of pure electric vehicles and the realization of autonomous driving functions.
CARIAD, the software division of the Volkswagen Group, has also ushered in a new change, having successfully integrated Hella's camera software business and cooperating with Bosch to develop L3-level autonomous driving technology. According to the plan, in 2022, CARIAD will enter the US and Chinese markets, customizing software development according to the different needs of different markets. By 2025, CARIAD will launch version 2.0 of the unified software platform, covering all brands of the Volkswagen Group.
For the 2022 performance trend, Volkswagen said that the market environment will remain challenging, if the new crown epidemic does not break out on a large scale, and the gap between intermediate products and commodities is alleviated, it is expected that product deliveries in 2022 will increase by 5% to 10% compared with 2021, and sales revenue will increase by 8% to 13% year-on-year. In terms of operating profit, the Group's return on operating sales is expected to be between 7% and 8.5%.
At the same time, Volkswagen Group pointed out that in 2022, the group will still be affected by the structural shortage of chips, and chip supply is expected to improve in the second half of 2022.