As we all know, the global automotive industry has been hit hard by the dual pressure of the new crown epidemic and chip shortage in 2021, and the Volkswagen Group is no exception, and the first link of the chain reaction is reflected in new car sales.
In fiscal 2021, Volkswagen Group vehicle sales reached 8.6 million units, down approximately 600,000 units from fiscal year 2020, down 6.3% year-on-year, and approximately 600,000 units from fiscal year 2020 and 2.4 million units from fiscal year 2019.
Operating profit nearly doubled
Although Sales of the Volkswagen Group declined in fiscal 2021, sales revenue increased by 12% year-on-year to EUR 250.2 billion, and operating profit excluding expenditure on special projects nearly doubled from last year to EUR 20 billion, nearly doubling from EUR 10.6 billion in FY2020, and profit after tax increased by 74.8% year-on-year to EUR 15.4 billion (EUR 8.8 billion in FY2020). Roughly calculated, the operating profit of volkswagen group buying a car in FY2021 is about 2326 euros, equivalent to about 16220 yuan, and the profit after tax of bicycles is about 12489 yuan.
The Volkswagen Group attributes this performance to a broad product portfolio and pricing advantages. To put it bluntly, it is the growth in sales of high-premium models that drives overall revenue.
According to the data, among the core brands of the Volkswagen Group, the Audi brand delivered 1.6805 million units in 2021, a slight decrease of 0.7% year-on-year; Skoda's global sales volume was 878,200 units, down 12.6% year-on-year.
But Porsche set a new delivery record, selling more than 300,000 units and growing by 10.9 percent, while VAG's supercar division, which consists of Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti, delivered 23,100 new vehicles, up 23.6 percent year-on-year. In addition, SEAT sold 470,500 units, up 10.3% year-on-year.
The optimization of the model product mix resulted in a net cash flow of €8.6 billion (64 euros in FY2020), a year-on-year increase of 35.4 percent, and net current assets of €26.7 billion, essentially the same as €26.8 billion in the previous fiscal year.
The electrification transition is beginning to take shape
From the 2021 financial report, it is not difficult for us to find that Volkswagen's electrification transformation is not in vain, but the first appearance.
In fiscal 2021, Volkswagen sold 8.6 million units worldwide, including 452,900 electric vehicles. In Europe, the Volkswagen Group's electric vehicle market share has reached 25%, which is twice the share of fuel vehicles, and Europe has become the best market for Volkswagen Group's electric vehicle sales.
In the U.S. market, the Volkswagen Group's market share of electric vehicles reached 7.5%, the second largest sales volume in the market, and relying on the ID.4 and several other SUV models, the Volkswagen Group achieved a turnaround in the North American market.
In the South American market, the Volkswagen Group has also launched special models to lay the foundation for profitability and positive cash flow.
In the Chinese market, which is considered "the most important", Volkswagen sold 93,000 pure electric vehicles, more than four times the sales of the previous year. In addition to delivering IDs for Chinese users. In addition to the family's new cars, the Volkswagen Group has also launched a new sales method for young consumers, including the opening of 120 urban showrooms in domestic shopping malls.
It is worth mentioning that the ID. It took only 9 months for the family to achieve the achievement of more than 10,000 monthly deliveries, which many new car-making forces dare not think, and also fully demonstrated the charm of the MEB platform, proving that only by truly developing a new platform for pure electric vehicles can we stand in the Chinese market.
In the context of Tesla and independent new energy brands, many joint venture brands have begun to feel the taste of weak brand strength, and Volkswagen last year, under the impetus of the ID. family, fought a turnaround battle in the Chinese market, becoming one of the few joint venture brands that are no longer passive in the Chinese market.
NEW AUTO: Significant progress has been made on the four major platforms
The Volkswagen Group announced its NEW AUTO strategy in July last year, which aims to create future profit sources through four global core technologies with cutting-edge technologies and strong scale effects. In 2021, the Group made significant progress in all areas.
Speaking at the launch of the group's annual earnings report, Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess said: "Last July, we announced our NEW AUTO strategy: by 2030 the Group will transform itself into a sustainable provider of software-driven mobility services. In less than a year, we have achieved significant milestones in all four strategic areas. We are steadily creating new profit sources for the future and will do our best to shape the future of mobility. ”
In terms of mechatronic platforms, the current MEB platform is gradually becoming the industry standard for electric mobility. The Group will expand its cooperation with Ford to produce a second all-electric model based on the MEB platform, and production of Ford's MEB models will double to 1.2 million units over the next six years.
Volkswagen will invest 2 billion euros to build a new plant next to the main plant in Wolfsburg to produce trinity, the first Volkswagen brand model based on the SSP (Scalable System Platform). The plant will adopt leading innovative production methods and achieve net zero CO2 emissions. Volkswagen will also invest 800 million euros in the construction of an R&D center focused on the development of the SSP platform. 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.
Volkswagen's software company CARIAD has successfully integrated Hella's camera software business and partnered with Bosch to develop L3-level autonomous driving technology. In 2022, CARIAD will enter the U.S. and Chinese markets. CARIAD will launch version 2.0 of the unified software platform in 2025, covering all Brands of the Volkswagen Group.
Looking to the future, the Volkswagen Group is committed to becoming a sustainable provider of software-driven mobility services, investing heavily in software development and autonomous driving technology, continuously improving its strengths, and continuously enriching its portfolio of pure electric vehicles. The automotive business generated R&D costs of EUR 15.6 billion in FY2021 (FY2020: EUR 13.9 billion), an increase of 12.2% year-on-year, and the R&D expense ratio (R&D costs as a percentage of sales revenue) was 7.6%, unchanged from the previous fiscal year.
Looking ahead to the challenging market environment in fiscal 2022, if the outbreak does not break out on a large scale and the gap between intermediate products and commodities is alleviated, the Volkswagen Group expects vehicle deliveries to grow by 5% to 10% year-on-year in 2022. Sales revenue will increase by 8% to 13% year-on-year, and the Group's operating return on sales is expected to be between 7% and 8.5% in terms of operating profit. In FY2022, the Group will continue to be affected by the structural shortage of chips, and chip supply is expected to improve in the second half of 2022 compared to the first half of the year.
From the current situation of the Volkswagen Group, the Volkswagen Group has done what it should do, the only uncertainty is the external environment, if the new crown epidemic is no longer a large-scale outbreak, the chip shortage problem is alleviated, and the international situation is stable, the Volkswagen Group is still very likely to achieve the expected goals. It is precisely because of these uncertainties that the Volkswagen Group is also unable to make a precise assessment of the extent to which it will be affecting global economic and industry growth in fiscal 2022.