Volkswagen Q2 profit falls 33% as China sales slump

Volkswagen's second-quarter net profit fell 32.9% from a year earlier to €1.54 billion ($1.8 billion), it said on Friday, as Europe's largest carmaker continued to grapple with weak demand in China.

The company's net profit was down from €2.29 billion in the second quarter of 2025, when earnings had already fallen 36% from a year earlier.

Group-wide vehicle deliveries fell nearly 9% to 2.08 million in the quarter, Volkswagen announced earlier. Deliveries in China, its biggest market, dropped by more than a third to 424,300 vehicles, while sales outside China were stronger.

Chief executive Oliver Blume has previously warned that tariffs, wars, geopolitical tensions and intensifying competition were creating headwinds for the company.

Resistance to new cost-cutting plans

Volkswagen has already announced plans to cut 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030, including 35,000 at the core Volkswagen brand and the remainder at subsidiaries such as Audi and Porsche. More than 37,000 employees have signed agreements to leave the company.

The plans have met resistance from labour representatives and the German state of Lower Saxony, which owns a 20% stake in Volkswagen and holds two seats on the supervisory board. Together with employee representatives, they control a majority on the board, where media reports said the latest proposals initially failed to win approval.

Blume is aiming to push through a new savings package for the group before the end of the year, saying he is confident the supervisory board will pass resolutions on the matter by then.

"We expect to have made great progress on that by the end of the year," Blume said in an interview with dpa.

Former profit engines continue to struggle

Audi and Porsche, once among the Volkswagen Group's most profitable brands, continue to face headwinds.

In the second quarter, Audi's revenue fell to €15 billion from €17.1 billion a year earlier. At the same time, operating profit declined further from the already weak level recorded in the same period last year.

At sports car maker Porsche AG, automotive revenue - excluding financial services - dropped to €7.8 billion from €8.3 billion a year earlier.

Porsche is also in the midst of a major restructuring programme and plans to cut additional jobs.