Summary of business development and economic position

The Board of Management of Volkswagen AG considers business development and the economic position for 2025 to be satisfactory overall in view of the challenges arising from the volatile geopolitical and geoeconomic conditions, accompanied by measures that are increasingly protectionist and competition that continues to intensify.

Despite this challenging market environment, the Volkswagen Group recorded a stable 9.0 million deliveries to customers in the past fiscal year, a figure that was thus on a level with the most recently adjusted forecast.

The Group’s sales revenue amounted to €321.9 billion and thus corresponded to the most recently anticipated figure.

The operating result of €8.9 billion and the operating return on sales of 2.8% were at the upper end of the most recently predicted range for the operating return on sales of between 2.0% and 3.0%. The decline compared to our original forecast was due in particular to non-cash impairment losses on goodwill and capitalized project costs, as well as other expenses in connection with Porsche’s adjusted product planning totaling €4.7 billion. Adverse impacts resulted additionally from changes in the external business environment, such as the increase in import tariffs introduced in the USA at the beginning of April 2025.

The investment ratio reflects our research and development expenses, as well as capex to strengthen our competitiveness; the figure of 11.8% represents a reduction compared with the figure anticipated for fiscal year 2025.

Net cash flow rose to €6.4 billion, which was higher than both the most recently adjusted forecast and the original forecast. In addition to the operating result being at the upper end of expectations, positive factors included primarily our investment discipline, which was intensified in the course of the year, and a positive change in working capital toward the end of the fiscal year, which was achieved by measures such as a reduction in inventories of new vehicles.

As a result, net liquidity stood at €34.5 billion on December 31, 2025 and was therefore higher than our most recently adjusted assessment and within the range originally expected.