Volkswagen's operating results before special items declined by 12.1 percent year-on-year to 2.8 billion euros (3.25 billion U.S. dollars) in the third quarter (Q3) due to global supply shortages, the German carmaker announced on Thursday, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
Sales revenues were down 4.1 percent year-on-year, decreasing to 56.9 billion euros from July to September, the company said. Vehicle sales fell sharply by almost 30 percent.
"The results of the third quarter show once again that we must now systematically drive forward the improvement in productivity in the volume sector," said Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, promising to "vigorously implement the transformation toward climate-neutral."
Volkswagen's global deliveries fell by 24.4 percent year-on-year in Q3, but still rose 6.9 percent in the first nine months, reaching a total of 7.0 million vehicles.
From January to September, the company increased its passenger car deliveries to its home market in Western Europe by 8.7 percent, and those to the U.S. by 27.9 percent.
Volkswagen's global passenger car market share fell by 0.9 percentage points to 12.1 percent in the first nine months of the year. However, the company expanded its market share in Europe and in North America.
In China, Volkswagen significantly accelerated its expansion of fully electric vehicles (BEV), with sales increasing to 28,900 vehicles between July and September, compared with 18,300 in the first half of the year.
Following the announcement, shares of Volkswagen fell by more than 4 percent, making Germany's largest car manufacturer one of the biggest losers at late Thursday trading.
(1 euro = 1.17 U.S. dollars)