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Volkswagen posts quarterly profit despite drop in sales

Volkswagen returned to profit in the third quarter as surging Chinese demand for luxury cars helped offset a 1.1% drop in vehicle deliveries due to the pandemic, sending its shares as much as 3% higher on Thursday. The German automaker's return to the black comes amid spiking coronavirus cases in Europe that led governments in France and Germany to order their countries back into strict national lockdowns on Wednesday. "The coronavirus remains a central problem," Volkswagen Chief Financial Officer Frank Witter said in a conference call with reporters. "This situation now is anything but relaxed." But Witter said the group expected the economic recovery to continue and did "not anticipate any nationwide lockdowns in larger markets." Witter said the takeover of U.S. truck maker Navistar International by Volkswagen's trucking unit Traton was an important acquisition, but the "current economic climate will not make this easy." Volkswagen reiterated it expects to post a profit for the full year, saying its business "recovered noticeably" in the third quarter as sales in China of premium vehicles, including Audi and Porsche sports cars, rose 3%. The quarterly performance was also aided by a series of cost-cutting measures launched earlier this year. Volkswagen said its net liquidity rose to 24.8 billion euros from 18.7 billion at the end of the second quarter. Excluding one-time items, third-quarter operating profit was 3.2 billion euros ($3.8 billion), down from 4.8 billion euros a year earlier, but up from a second quarter loss of 1.7 billion. In a note to clients, Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois described the results as a "solid performance with strong cash, but relatively muted in the context of the (auto) sector recovery." Last week, German rival Daimler reported a record 24% jump in Chinese demand for its Mercedes-Benz cars, boosting its margins in the third quarter. Italian-American Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot manufacturer PSA Group both also posted solid results this week. Witter said Volkswagen could not say for sure whether it would meet EU CO2 emissions targets this year, adding "it will be a tough race." At 1030 GMT, Volkswagen shares were up 2.9% at 129.20 euros. Related Video: Earnings/Financials Audi Bentley Bugatti Lamborghini Porsche Volkswagen

Former Audi chief designer Wolfgang Egger leaves Italdesign

The latest word from the international community of automotive designers has it that Wolfgang Egger is leaving Italdesign, but just where the accomplished designer will land next and who will take his place remain big question marks. Egger is a designer who has bounced back and forth between Italy and Germany over the course of his career. He was born in Germany but studied in Milan. He began his career at Alfa Romeo in 1989 and was named its chief designer by 1993 before being head-hunted by the Volkswagen Group in 1998 to head up the design department at Seat. A few years later he went returned to Italy to run the Lancia design department, and was subsequently renamed to the same post at Alfa Romeo. In 2007 he went back to his native Germany to head up the Audi design office, over which he assumed complete responsibility by 2012, but left Audi in 2013 to run Italdesign. For those unfamiliar, Italdesign is the studio founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro (pictured at left next to Egger) back in 1968 but which, along with many other Italian design houses, fell on hard times in recent years. The Volkswagen Group swooped in to rescue the troubled studio in 2010, turning it into something of an in-house advanced design department to provide an alternative perspective on the direction in which the group and its various brands could take their respective designs moving forward. With Egger now leaving its helm, Italdesign and its German parent company will need to find his replacement, and we're sure they'll announce one in due course. The bigger question on our minds, however, is where Egger himself will head next. Given the path his career has taken to date, we wouldn't be surprised to see him land elsewhere in the Volkswagen Group or find a new role in the expanding Fiat Chrysler Automobiles empire. Then again, Egger could find it time to open an entirely new chapter. Watch this space. News Source: Car Design NewsImage Credit: Newspress Design/Style Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Audi Volkswagen designer italdesign giugiaro wolfgang egger

Mercedes chief invites Audi, BMW to compete in F1

Mercedes-Benz didn't just win the Formula One World Championship in 2014 – it positively dominated it. The team won all but three of the grands prix this season, scoring a one-two finish at more than half of them and landing at least one car on the podium at every race without exception. It goes without saying, then, that the German automaker thrives on competition, but now it's welcoming even more. Speaking with Germany's Sport Bild at its homecoming celebration in Stuttgart, Daimler chief Dieter Zetsche welcomed Mercedes' biggest rivals Audi and BMW to join it on the F1 grid. Noting that the three German brands share some 80 percent of the market for luxury automobiles, Zetsche said that F1 would make a natural arena of competition for Mercedes, Audi and BMW to fight for top bragging rights. The three currently compete against each other in front of home audiences in the DTM touring car series – effectively Germany's equivalent to NASCAR – but of the ten races held this year, the majority were in Germany itself, and all of them took place in Europe. BMW last competed in F1 when it bought the Sauber team in 2006, but withdrew from the series in 2009. Despite its progenitor Auto Union having fielded the famous Silver Arrows in pre-war grand prix racing, Audi has never been a player in modern F1 racing, though recent rumors have linked it to a potential foray – spurred by the arrival of sister-company Porsche on its home turf at Le Mans, the departure of several of its key endurance drivers and the hiring of former Scuderia Ferrari chief Stefano Domenicali. Porsche had similarly considered an F1 program before getting the go-ahead to compete with Audi at Le Mans. As for the prospect of Mercedes competing in other international racing series, Zetsche added that year-long preparations for 24 hours of racing at Le Mans didn't present a good cost-benefit ratio in his estimation, but that Formula E (where Audi currently supports a quasi-works entry) would be worth a closer look.