Against the backdrop of the ongoing corona pandemic, Audi is taking stock after a difficult first quarter of 2020. Due to lockdowns and closed dealerships worldwide, deliveries of Audi-brand cars fell by 21.1 percent in the first three months of this year. The Audi Group’s revenue amounted to €12,454 million and its operating return on sales was 0.1 percent. Despite the difficult economic conditions, a net cash flow of approximately €1 billion was achieved. In view of the financial impact of the corona pandemic, Audi had taken early countermeasures to safeguard its liquidity. Furthermore, the cash flow was boosted by the sale within the VW Group of AEV GmbH. In order to protect its employees and in response to demand and supply-chain-factors, production was temporarily suspended worldwide and short-time working was introduced at the plants in Germany. Production in China is already largely back to normal. The Audi plants in Europe have been gradually ramping up production according to a fixed plan since the end of April. The Audi Group expects the corona pandemic to have a significant impact on the global economy and car markets over the full year, and currently assumes that deliveries of the Audi core brand, revenue and operating profit will be well below the prior-year levels.
In the context of the corona pandemic, Audi was operating in a highly volatile regulatory and economic environment in the first quarter. The global shutdown had adverse effects along the entire automotive value chain, for example on sales, customer demand and supply-chains stability. “We closed down our production capacities in a controlled manner and in doing so have protected jobs at our sites in Germany thanks to short-time working. The health of our employees and their families has always been and still is our top priority,” said Arno Antlitz, Member of the Audi Board of Management for Finance, China and Legal Affairs. “At the same time, during this phase when the markets are at a standstill, we have succeeded in protecting our liquidity and keeping core processes stable at our company also in the crisis.”
After the car manufacturer had initially started the year 2020 with a tailwind from its model initiative, the spread of the coronavirus and related regulatory measures such as the closure of dealerships and lockdowns from February onwards had an increasingly adverse impact on car deliveries, first in the Chinese market and later in the other core regions as well. Due to the pandemic, deliveries by the Audi brand fell by 21.1 percent in the first three months to 352,993 vehicles (2019: 447,247). The Four Rings thus performed better than the overall market, which contracted by 23.3 percent. The first signs of recovery were already apparent in China towards the end of the first quarter: 100 percent of dealerships there have now reopened. With measures such as online sales of new cars from stock, virtual showrooms and Audi’s live advice, the brand is systematically expanding its digital sales business together with its partners.
In the context of the declining market development, the Audi Group generated revenue of €12,454 million (2019: €13,812 million), with positive effects from the full availability of Audi Q3 models and the market success of the Audi e-tron, as well as from higher revenue from deliveries of parts sets for local production in China. At €483 million, revenue by the Lamborghini brand was at the high level of the prior-year period (2019: €491 million).
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SOURCE: Audi
