Summary of business development and economic position

In view of the political and economic developments in 2023 and the transformation of the industry, the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG considers business development and the economic position challenging, but positive overall.

In the reporting year, the Volkswagen Group’s business was impacted by the challenging global market environment, parts supply shortages and disruptions in the logistics chain. In this environment, we delivered 9.2 million vehicles to customers in the past fiscal year, which was within the corridor we last forecast.

Group sales revenue increased by 15.5% and was thus at the upper end of the expected corridor.

At €22.6 billion, the operating result was in the range of our adjusted forecast and thus level with the prior-year figure before special items.

Research and development costs reflect our activities undertaken to safeguard the Company’s future viability. The R&D ratio in the Automotive Division was in the range of our adjusted expectations at 8.1%.

The ratio of capex to sales revenue for the Automotive Division was below the forecast corridor at 5.4%.

Net cash flow of €10.7 billion was more than double the prior-year level and thus higher than our adjusted forecast. Above all, a stronger-than-expected reduction in inventories also had a positive effect at the end of the reporting year.

On December 31, 2023, net liquidity had reached a solid level of €40.3 billion, which was at the upper end of our expected range.

The return on investment (ROI) in the Automotive Division was 12.3%, which was within the forecast corridor and, as expected, thus exceeded our minimum required rate of return on invested capital.