VW Group report their biggest quarterly profit in 2 years, citing increased demand in China and America for the Golf compact and Audi A5 coupé. Second-quarter net income quadrupled to €1.25bn, up from €283m last year.
Volkswagen’s two new factories are the tenth and eleventh in their biggest market as they double Chinese production to 3 million vehicles within four years from 1.4 million in 2009. VW’s first-half deliveries in China climbed 46% to 950,000 vehicles.
In the United States, where VW will open a plant next year in Chattanooga, Tennessee, six-month sales increased 29% to 175,000.
VW are targeting in 2018 a pretax profit in excess of 8% of sales, compared with 1.4% in the first three quarters of 2009, as well as a medium-term operating margin of at least 5 percent of revenue.
