Audi got off to a particularly bad start to the year. At group level, the VW subsidiary lost around one billion euros in profit and more than three billion euros in sales in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, as can be seen from the business figures published in Ingolstadt on Friday. The bottom line was that there was still an increase of 736 million euros. In Germany, Audi sold a quarter fewer cars compared to the same quarter last year, but business in China picked up again. The company hopes to catch up worldwide, especially in the second half of the year, in order to achieve its goals for 2024.
“As expected, 2024 will be a year of transition for us,” said CFO Jürgen Rittersberger. “This was particularly evident in the first quarter, which was characterized, among other things, by a tense supply situation.” This affected the V6 and V8 engines for the top models, from which Audi particularly earns money. Added to this were costs for current model initiatives, a difficult market environment with higher price pressure in Germany and Europe, a strike in Mexico and a valuation effect on used cars. According to Rittersberger, their falling residual values cost around 300 million euros. Rittersberger did not want to say which part was missing from the V6 and V8 engines. However, it is a very complex component that is important for the efficiency of the engines. It was therefore not possible to quickly find an alternative. However, the situation is improving here, which will be particularly noticeable in the third and fourth quarters.