Seat and Bentley the losers as VW announce strong 3rd quarter figures

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Volkswagen’s strong third-quarter results are primarily down to sales that far exceeded market forecasts at its luxury brand Audi and booming earnings from its China operations.

The German manufacturer’s share of profits from the two Chinese joint ventures proportionate to VW’s stakes amounted to 513 million euros which is more than double the 231 million earned a year ago.
Audi almost doubled its operating profit to 2.3 billion euros, boosted by a 13.6 percent increase in unit sales to 968,000. “The figures for the Lamborghini brand, which are included in the key figures for the Audi brand, also showed a positive development,” VW said in a statement without elaborating.

The core VW passenger car brand lifted unit sales by 11.8 percent to 2.8 million euros and its operating profit improved to 1.6 billion euros from 300 million euros. The growth was driven in particular by demand for the Polo, New Beetle, Tiguan, Touareg, Jetta and Passat models, VW said.

Skoda’s operating profit rose to 314 million euros from 162 million euros, with unit sales rising by 4.3 percent in the first three quarters to 426,000, boosted by strong demand for the Octavia, Superb and Yeti models.

It wasn’t all good news however as VW’s Bentley and Seat brands actually lost money during the first nine months.

Despite increasing unit sales by 29.9%, UK based Bentley’s operating loss was 145 million euros which is slightly lower than the 148 million posted for the same period in 2009.

Source: Automotive News

VW’s Spanish brand Seat profited from the recovery of its home passenger car market, with sales climbing by 10.6% 260,000 units. The increase helped to narrow the struggling brand’s operating loss to 218 million euros from 228 million euros.