Major auto groups have suffered from declining sales and revenues in the past quarter, according to several reports released Thursday
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Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, expects revenues for the first quarter to fall by 68.9 percent to 719 million euros, the group announced on Thursday. Daimler’s car and commercial vehicle division was particularly hard hit. There, revenues from collapsed car sales fell to 603 million euros during the first quarter, a decrease of almost 56 percent. The final quarterly figures will be released next Wednesday. Then the first factories must also be partially restarted. For the rest of the year, Daimler also expects less income and lower turnover. Ford even expects a loss of approximately $ 2 billion ($ 1.84 billion) in the first quarter.
Groupe Renault’s worldwide sales in the first quarter were 672,962 units more than a quarter lower. Turnover was 12.5 percent lower at 12.5 billion euros. The hardest hits are in Europe, where Renault’s sales are shrinking by 36 percent after the sale of 321,756 cars. Dacia’s sales shrank by 44.5 percent in the first quarter of this year. Interestingly enough, the car group outside Europe did make a profit in some countries. This is due to the strong first months of this year, in which new cars were introduced. For example, South Korean sales increased by 20.1 percent. The Samsung XM3 takes the lead there of the striking success.
Hyundai posted net profit of EUR 347 million for the first quarter, down 44 percent to its lowest level in a decade. The South Korean company expects profit to decline further in the second quarter.