Volkswagen posted a net loss after tax of 5.82 billion euros for the third quarter, as a write-down on Porsche and charges in China swamped its operating business. The loss compared with a deficit of 1.07 billion euros a year earlier, the company said on Oct. 29. Brussels Signal noted the loss was larger than the 1.67 billion euro net loss Volkswagen booked in the third quarter of 2015, during the diesel emissions scandal.

For investors in Asia, the more telling number sits in a footnote. Volkswagen's share of operating results from its equity-accounted joint ventures in China was a loss of 113 million euros in the first nine months of 2026, according to a footnote in the results release. In the same period a year earlier, those ventures contributed a profit of 744 million euros.

Porsche and China drive 7.8 billion euros of charges

Volkswagen booked 7.8 billion euros of special items in the July to September quarter, out of 8.7 billion euros for the year so far. The largest was a non-cash goodwill impairment of 6.4 billion euros on Porsche. Around 1 billion euros came from non-cash impairments on the assets of fully consolidated companies in China, and the rest from costs tied to the planned sale of its Osnabrück plant in Germany, the company said.

Third-quarter revenue fell 6.3% to 75.28 billion euros. The operating loss for the quarter was 5.86 billion euros, against a loss of 1.3 billion euros a year earlier. Analysts had expected an operating loss of about 2.6 billion euros, according to a Visible Alpha consensus cited in the same report.

Over nine months, the operating result was 71 million euros, compared with 5.4 billion euros a year earlier. Before special items, the operating return on sales was 3.8%. Revenue for the period slipped 2% to 233.4 billion euros. Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said in the statement that the margin was too low to keep investing heavily in the business, and that the group "cannot afford to lose any time."

The loss follows Mercedes-Benz, which last week cut its 2026 profit outlook after its China car sales fell 31% in the third quarter.

Volkswagen's China volumes fall faster than the market

The China slide shows up clearly in volumes. Volkswagen's deliveries in China fell 38.5% in the third quarter to 405,800 vehicles, according to its Oct. 12 delivery report. Through September, deliveries in China dropped 30.2% to 1,378,800 vehicles, part of a 27.9% fall across the Asia-Pacific region to 1,591,300 vehicles.

Volkswagen said the shrinking Chinese market was an industry-wide problem, with the combustion-engine business hit hardest. It pointed to one brighter spot: deliveries of electrified vehicles in China rose about 30% in the third quarter from a year earlier, led by plug-in hybrid and range-extender models developed locally for Chinese buyers.

That shift matters for the earnings mix. The joint ventures' results are not consolidated into group revenue, so their decline hits Volkswagen through its equity income and dividends rather than its top line. Excluding the Chinese joint ventures, group vehicle sales were only about 1% lower than a year earlier through September, the company said.

The Progressive brand group, which includes Audi, saw operating profit fall 26% to 1.2 billion euros over nine months, partly because of lower volumes in China and North America. The Sport Luxury brand group, Porsche, reported nine-month revenue of 22.1 billion euros and an operating result of 1.5 billion euros.

Guidance holds at a margin of up to 1%

Volkswagen kept the 2026 guidance it cut in September. It expects revenue of about 315 billion euros, down from 321.9 billion euros in 2025, and an operating return on sales of up to 1%. The original target for 2026 had been 4% to 5.5%, Produktion reported.

The company expects automotive net cash flow of 3 billion to 6 billion euros this year and net liquidity in the automotive division of 32 billion to 34 billion euros. Net liquidity stood at 33 billion euros at the end of September. The forecast assumes current tariffs stay in place and does not include any effect from an escalation in the Middle East, the company said.

Management is leaning on a cost program worth about 31 billion euros, built on a smaller model range, lower overheads and more efficient plants. The group had about 648,100 employees at the end of September, down from 662,900 at the end of 2025, according to the results release.

In Europe the picture is better. Order intake rose 4% to 3 million vehicles in the first nine months, and electric models made up about 40% of the European order bank, with around 150,000 orders for the new Electric Urban Car Family. Volkswagen said it earns less on electric cars than on combustion models, so that growth adds pressure on margins.

Talks with employee representatives at the core Volkswagen brand on a revision of collective agreements are due to start in November, Brussels Signal reported.