Audi achieves financial targets for 2019

In view of the COVID-19 crisis and in order to minimise the risk of infection, the Audi Group is not holding an annual press conference this year.

The company is also shutting down its plants in Ingolstadt, Neckarsulm, Belgium, Mexico and Hungary in a controlled manner by the end of this week.

For the year 2019, in a declining overall market, Audi ended the year with an increase in deliveries of 1.8% to 1,845,573 vehicles. Top-end models and SUVs such as the all electric Audi e-tron and the new Audi Q8 were very well received by customers.

Against this backdrop, the Audi Group's revenue adjusted for the effects of deconsolidating the multi-brand importers in 2018, which was $83.92 billion, is above the prior-year level at $87.15 billion. Thanks to its strong product mix, the Audi core brand increased its revenue to $61.77 billion from $58.32 billion during the year.

Operating profit amounted to $7.05 billion, whereby the previous year's figure was reduced by $1.84 billion due to special items related to the diesel issue. Operating return on sales rose from 6.6% to 8.1%. This was driven by the improved Audi product mix, the increased operating profit of Lamborghini and the successfully implemented Audi Transformation Plan measures, totaling $3.9 billion.

Audi also plans to offer approximately 30 electric models by 2025, with the proportion of new-energy vehicles in production set to rise from 3.5% today to about 40% in 2025. Audi is planning upfront expenditure of approximately $19 billion by 2024 solely for the electrification of its portfolio without compromising on its profitability targets.

Audi also confirmed its target of a premium return on sales of between 9% and 11% and a return on investment of more than 21%. The company plans to achieve both return targets in the medium term. Audi has already improved its return on investment with capital efficiency rising from 10.4% in 2018 to 12.7% in 2019.

In 2020, Audi will again present around 20 models and systematically continue its course towards electrification. By the end of the year, the Audi core brand will launch five all electric models on the markets and increase its plug-in hybrid offering to a total of 12 models.