Volkswagen reported a drop in preliminary first-quarter profit on Wednesday, with operating earnings falling to €2.8 billion ($3.1 billion) from €4.6 billion a year earlier, in part due to uncertainty around new US tariffs.
The decline was driven by €1.1 billion in one-off charges, the Wolfsburg-based carmaker said, including provisions in connection with CO2 regulation in Europe and write-downs on vehicles due to new US auto tariffs.
The company faces difficult times ahead amid US tariffs of 25% on all imports of cars introduced last week.
The operating margin dropped to 3.6% from 6%, missing market expectations of around €4 billion in operating profit and a 5% margin.
Volkswagen confirmed its full-year targets, including up to 5% revenue growth and an operating margin of 5.5% to 6.5%.
Europe’s largest carmaker added that the new US tariffs are not included in the forecast, “as the effects and their interactions cannot be conclusively assessed at present.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Volkswagen reported an uptick in global deliveries in the first quarter of 2025.
The company delivered some 2.1 million vehicles to customers between January and March, a 1.4% rise compared to the same period in 2024.
The figures suggest a slight recovery for Volkswagen after a 2.3% drop in deliveries in 2024.
The core VW brand, which makes up around half of the group’s sales, saw deliveries rise 5% in the first quarter to 1.1 million, while Audi fell 3.4% to 383,400 and Porsche dropped almost 8% to 71,500.
The important Chinese market was a source of concern, with VW delivering only 644,000 vehicles – a 7% fall compared to the first quarter of 2024.
Deliveries in Europe rose 3.7%, while US deliveries surged by 6.2% as customers sought to get ahead of tariffs.
Worldwide, sales of VW electric vehicles jumped by 60% to 216,800, of which 158,000 were in Europe.