BERLIN (Reuters) – Volkswagen’s passenger car brand aims to increase earnings by around 10 billion euros ($10.82 billion) by 2026 to hit its return on sales target of 6.5%, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz posted on LinkedIn on Wednesday.
Production of vehicles in the passenger car brand, Commercial Vehicles, SEAT, Cupra and Skoda will be more closely aligned for efficiency, Antlitz added.
Antlitz’s statement comes after Volkswagen brand chief Thomas Schaefer told workers in an internal memo in mid-May it was planning an overhaul at its core brand to put it on more solid footing after reporting 3% returns in the first quarter of the year.
Volkswagen is due to present new financial targets and an updated corporate strategy for the entire group at a capital markets day next Wednesday.
The carmaker’s supervisory board was due to discuss on Tuesday cost-cutting measures amounting to at least 3 billion euros across the Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda and Cupra brands to achieve that goal, a source told Reuters.
Optimising efficiency in production would be key to producing the planned 25,000-euro entry-level electric vehicle set to be made in Spain, Antlitz said in his LinkedIn post on Wednesday.
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(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Jan Schwartz; Editing by Miranda Murray)
