Europe’s No. 1 Automaker VW Reports Profit Surge

VOA Breaking News (Voice of America)
October 27, 2010 at 3:25 pm

Europe’s biggest automaker Volkswagen AG says its quarterly profits have jumped on strong demand for many of its nine vehicle brands.

Germany-based VW reported a net profit of $3 billion in July to August, a more than 10-fold increase from the same period a year ago.

VW chief executive Martin Winterkorn said Wednesday the company is keeping its focus on surpassing Japan’s Toyota Motor as the world’s largest automaker by 2018. VW hopes to sell 10 million vehicles a year by that date. It sold 5.4 million units in the first nine months of this year.

VW reported strong sales in China, its biggest market. VW’s China earnings rose to $1.8 billion in January to September from $690 million in the year-earlier period.

VW’s Audi brand was the biggest contributor to profits. Two of its other brands, Seat and Bentley, suffered further losses in the first nine months of the year.

Some information in this story was provided by AFP and Bloomberg.