VW Group has reported operating profit (before special items) at EUR3.2bn for the third quarter (compares with a loss of EUR1.7bn in Q2 and EUR4.8bn profit in Q3 2019), helped by a rapid recovery in sales in the recovering Chinese market.
Group sales revenue in the quarter ended September 30 amounted to EUR59.4bn (EUR61.4bn Q3 2019), down only 3.4% on last year.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Volkswagen Group's deliveries dropped by 18.7% year-on-year to 6.5m (8.0m) vehicles in the first nine months. However, in an overall market that contracted at a faster rate, the VW Group says it was able to expand its global passenger car market share by 0.4 percentage points year-on-year to 13.0 percent.
The market recovery following sharp decreases earlier in the year, especially at the beginning of the second quarter, continued in the third quarter, as expected, VW said. A key driver of this development was China, the VW Group's largest single market, where deliveries between July and September were 3% up on the prior-year period. Globally, the number of vehicles delivered to customers in the third quarter was approximately the same as in the same quarter of 2019 (–1.1%).
In September, the VW Group's global deliveries exceeded the level of the same month in 2019 for the first time this year (+3.3%).