Pole Position "UBS European & US Autos Daily" Hummel

Research evidence excerpt

Pole Position "UBS European & US Autos Daily" Hummel

Global Research

14 July 2026ab

Pole Position Equities

Europe including UKUBS European & US Autos Daily

Automobiles

Patrick Hummel, CFA

VW: Q2 pre-close feedback & update on headcount reduction plan Analyst

Volkswagen's IR team hosted a Q2 pre-close call after market hours yesterday (open to patrick.hummel@ubs.com

buy- and sell-sides). Regarding OP margin, the team highlighted pricing pressure in EU +41-44-239 52 54

and NA, a negative brand and regional mix and residual value headwinds; further, the David Lesne

discontinuation of the AV project with Bosch will lead to a low three-digit €m charge. Analyst

Overall, VW sees the Q2 OP margin within the 4.0-5.5% FY target corridor, but didn’t david.lesne@ubs.com

confirm this for H1 overall (different to initial comments about Q2 “at the upper end of +33-14-888 3034

corridor” in what is seasonally the strongest quarter for VW). On auto FCF, VW expects a Joseph Spak, CFA

“slightly positive” number in Q2 that includes ~€1bn outflow for the milestone payment Analyst

to the Rivian JV. The IR team confirmed that neither Everllence nor the additional joseph.spak@ubs.com

restructuring programme that is currently being negotiated will have an impact on Q2. +1-212-713 3089

On this topic, Bloomberg wrote yesterday that VW's CEO Blume had outlined a plan for Juan Perez-Carrascosa

50k additional headcount reductions in an internal memo, referring to the company’s Analyst

overhead being one-fifth higher than competitors’. juan-perez.carrascosa@ubs.com

+34-91-436 9025

Our view: Paul Gong

None of the comments in the pre-close call was surprising, and the call leaves us Analyst

confident in our below-consensus estimates for the quarter. We expect €3.7bn OP in paul.gong@ubs.com