Volkswagen lost €5.8bn after tax in the third quarter. A €6.4bn write-down on Porsche drove the loss. Shrinking sales in China, US import tariffs and thinner margins on electric cars added to it. In the same quarter last year, the loss was €1.1bn.
The group published the figures on Thursday in its nine-month results. It was Volkswagen’s largest quarterly loss since the end of 2015, a company spokesperson told Reuters.
Revenue fell 6.3% to €75.3bn, and the operating loss reached €5.9bn. Deliveries dropped 14.3% to 1.89 million vehicles. One-off charges in the quarter came to €7.8bn.
“The nine-month results make one thing clear: We cannot afford to lose any time and must act quickly and decisively,” said chief financial officer Arno Antlitz in the company’s statement.
Porsche and tariffs
The Porsche charge is a non-cash impairment of goodwill, the premium Volkswagen booked on its luxury brand. Porsche updated its long-term planning and cut its volume assumptions. The brand is now worth less on Volkswagen’s books, the group’s interim report says. Volkswagen warned of the hit in September. At the time, it cut its 2026 margin forecast to up to 1%, from 4% to 5.5%.
US import tariffs cut the operating result by about €2.1bn in the first nine months. That matches a year earlier. Electric cars also weighed on profits, even as they sell well.
“The market success of our electric vehicles is putting additional pressure on our earnings, as we currently earn less from electric vehicles than from combustion-engine vehicles,” Antlitz said.
Electric models make up 40% of the group’s order book, he said.
China is shrinking
China was once Volkswagen’s profit engine. In the third quarter, its deliveries there fell 38.5% to 405,800, according to the group’s delivery figures. It faces fierce price competition from local carmakers there. Meanwhile, Volkswagen builds China-developed car technology into its new models.
“China is no longer a growth machine,” Volkswagen’s China chief, Ralf Brandstätter, told Lazar Backovic of Handelsblatt (translated from German).
Volkswagen may sell only about 2.2 million cars a year in China by 2030, Handelsblatt reported. Its earlier target was 3.2 million. At its peak, the group sold more than four million cars a year there.
What comes next
Volkswagen kept its 2026 forecast unchanged. It expects revenue of about €315bn and an operating margin of up to 1%. Antlitz pointed to a cost programme worth around €31bn, built on fewer models, simpler structures and more efficient plants.
The restructuring could cost up to 100,000 jobs and close four German plants, The Associated Press reported. Volkswagen set out the 100,000 job cuts in September. Porsche is cutting thousands more jobs of its own, and Volkswagen’s US EV sales fell 90% in a quarter, it said this month.
“The loss reported by VW today is a warning sign for the entire sector and industry, and should also serve as one for policymakers,” Moritz Kronenberger of Union Investment told Reuters.