Volkswagen may be poised to take over as the world’s largest automaker by year’s end, but the German automaker reported a massive profit decrease late on Wednesday. VW said its first quarter profits dropped 74 percent, with collapsing global auto sales to blame.
VW’s first quarter profits totaled just 243 million euros ($314 million), well off the pace of last year’s 929 million euros, according to the New York Times. First quarter results would have been even worse had it not been for the sale of a $600 million commercial vehicle business sale in Brazil.
VW’s overall revenue also fell 11 percent, totaling 24 billion euros, despite sales growth in Germany, Brazil, Russia, China and Poland.
On the plus side, the VW group saw a sharp uptick in global market share, climbing from 9.7 percent to 11 percent.
Although a 74 percent drop in profit is never a good thing, it’s still far better than some other automakers are doing. Automakers like General Motors and Toyota are losing billions in the current economic climate, so a profit of $314 million looks fairly healthy at the moment.
