Volkswagen is raising its outlook for 2021 after a record profit

Volkswagen is raising its outlook for 2021 after a record profit in the first half of the year. In view of the ongoing shortage of chips, Europe's largest car manufacturer dampened expectations for deliveries. However, Volkswagen is still assuming a "noticeable" increase over the previous year. So far, a "clear" plus had been promised. In the first half of the year, the group brought almost five million vehicles to customers worldwide, around 28 percent more than in the weak period of the previous year. "We are keeping the pace high, both operationally and strategically," said CEO Herbert Diess. The result of the first half of the year is clear evidence of this. The premium business in particular went very well with double-digit returns, as did the financial services division. For the year as a whole, the group raised the margin by half a point. As it was said, the electric offensive was gaining momentum. The operating result after six months was 11.4 billion euros and thus above the previous record in the same period of the pre-crisis year 2019 of almost ten billion. In the first half of 2020, Volkswagen posted an operating loss of 800 million euros before special items because factories and car dealerships across Europe came to a standstill due to the pandemic and vehicle sales collapsed. Before the figures were published, Volkswagen had stated that the impairments caused by the bottleneck in electronic components had shifted and would more likely lead to impairments in the second half of the year. The task force that Volkswagen set up expects the semiconductor bottleneck to drag on until the end of next year. In the first half of the year, Volkswagen was already unable to produce a high six-digit number of vehicles. In the meantime, the Wolfsburg-based company has taken a step further in transforming itself into a mobility group: the day before, a consortium led by Volkswagen and the owners of the car rental company Europcar agreed on the price for a takeover of the French company.