Volkswagen Is World's Largest Automaker - By Profits
The podium was all smiles when Volkswagen reported an unheard-of profit of €18.9 billion ($24.8 billion) before tax, which turned into €15.8 billion ($20.7 billion) after the taxman got his €3.1 billion share. When Volkswagen announced this today in the annual results press conference, there was one man who grinned even more than anybody else.
That man was Stefan Winter. He is a reporter of the Hannoversche Allgemeine. He r eported a month ago that Volkswagen would have a €16 billion profit. And he was right. The world’s second largest automaker in volume definitely is the largest in profits. For details, the annual report is available here.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Who cares about profits? Everybody knows that the real measure of an automaker is is how many Chinese delivery vans their minority-stake joint venture can crank out in a year.
At current US C corporation tax rates, the US government would take 6.62 billion Euros equivalent in dollars from VW, not 3.1 billion. Evidence of the Laffer Curve at work? Apple has $54 billion overseas they aren't repatriating. We don't need a complete overseas tax holiday, but for creating real jobs, a reduction in corporate tax rate in general couldn't possibly be worse than current government policy and its election year class warfare stance.
Just as HP figured out that you could sell printers at a loss, and make up for it by selling ink catridges at a premium; VW sells its cars at a decently low price, and makes its profits by selling overpriced parts to fix these same cars.
Isn't Toyota still worth far more than any other automaker?