Volkswagen Sticks to 2021 Profit Margin Forecast Despite Chip Crunch

Volkswagen still expects to achieve a 2021 operating profit margin of between 5.5% and 7% for the group and a margin of 3% to 4% for its main brand, a spokesperson for the company said.

“Fortunately, been we have able to notably limit the negative impact on our customers and thus on delivery figures so far, for example by selling off inventories and other measures,” the spokesperson said.

Business Insider reported on Tuesday that the Wolfsburg-based firm did not expect to be able to produce more than 800,000 vehicles this year due to semiconductor bottlenecks.

The spokesperson declined to confirm that figure and said it was not possible to reliably forecast the impact of the semiconductor shortage on production and deliveries by the end of the year.

Volkswagen has already said the bottlenecks would lead to a six-figure number of vehicles not being produced, the spokesperson added.

The German firm said this month it expected the chips shortage to ease in the third quarter but saw the bottlenecks continuing in the long-term.

(Reporting by Jan Schwartz; Writing by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Edmund Blair)