VW's Preferred Shares Slip as Porsche SE's €3bn Writedown Exposes the True Scale of the Wolfsburg Crisis
Published on 08/11/2026 at 13:13 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The numbers buried in Porsche SE's half-year report tell a story that Volkswagen's own sales figures have been slow to reveal. The holding company that controls the Wolfsburg automaker has slashed the book value of its VW stake by €3 billion — a writedown that speaks louder than any production statistic about how much ground the core asset has lost.
Porsche SE, which holds 31.9 percent of Volkswagen's voting rights and 12.5 percent of Porsche AG, swung to a group loss of €2.2 billion in the first half, against a €0.3 billion profit in the same period last year. An additional €0.2 billion writedown on the Porsche AG stake compounded the damage, while adjusted earnings fell 14.5 percent to €949 million.
A Family Holding's Verdict on VW's Trajectory
For investors, the impairment is more than an accounting footnote from a holding company. It represents the controlling family's own assessment of how far Volkswagen's intrinsic value has deteriorated. The picture that emerges from the interim report is of a group at a historic inflection point, with the net profit down by nearly a third in six months.
The restructuring burden is staggering. Volkswagen has already cut 50,000 jobs, and a further 50,000 positions plus four German plant closures are on the table — plans that the supervisory board has so far refused to wave through. In Zwickau, the company is shedding staff as electric-vehicle production runs below capacity, while a group-wide cost-cutting programme struggles to lift the core brand's thin operating margin.
Porsche AG's Divergent Fortunes
The contrast with Porsche AG could hardly be starker. The sports-car maker's operating result climbed 34 percent to €1.3 billion, even as revenue slipped 5.1 percent to €17.2 billion. Deliveries fell 16.5 percent to 122,306 vehicles and the EV share of sales dropped from 23.5 to 19.4 percent — yet profitability improved, pointing to sharper cost discipline that Volkswagen itself has yet to demonstrate.
China: From Growth Engine to Structural Headache
Nowhere is the challenge more acute than in China, once the group's most important market. The overall passenger-car market there contracted 20 percent in the first half, but Volkswagen's combustion-engine sales plunged 26.7 percent — particularly painful given the company still commands a 22.6 percent share of that segment. In electric vehicles, VW holds only around 5 percent of a market where new-energy vehicles now account for 54 percent of sales. BEV deliveries fell 64 percent in the first quarter, and total China deliveries dropped 36.6 percent in the second.
The response includes a partnership with Xpeng for the ID. UNYX 08 model and roughly 20 locally developed vehicles slated for 2026, part of an effort to shorten development cycles and cut costs. Robert Cisek, who heads the passenger-car brand in China, outlined that strategy at the Beijing Auto Show. The Audi E5 Sportback was named China's "Car of the Year 2026," though whether such accolades can offset the structural weakness in combustion remains an open question.
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A Sector-Wide Squeeze
Volkswagen is hardly alone in feeling the pressure. Across the 15 largest non-Chinese automakers, average earnings before interest and tax per vehicle fell 15.8 percent to €1,187 in the first half, according to the CAM report. Industry-wide Ebit dropped 17.5 percent to €35.6 billion, while revenue dipped just 1.4 percent — a divergence that study director Stefan Bratzel called an "alarm signal." US tariffs and Chinese price competition are weighing on the entire sector, with no relief expected before the second half ends.
North America: A High-Stakes Bet
Against this grim backdrop, Volkswagen is doubling down in North America rather than retreating. Plans call for a dedicated pickup truck built at the Chattanooga, Tennessee plant, with launch targeted before the decade is out. The logic is clear: pickups accounted for nearly 20 percent of US auto sales in 2025, with an average list price of close to $70,000. Volkswagen's current US market share stands at just 4 percent. A possible Ford partnership based on the MEB platform, echoing the Amarok and Ranger relationship, remains under discussion.
The American push comes with a leadership change: Kjell Gruner is stepping down as North America chief, replaced by Marco Schubert, currently Audi's sales director. The company is also pruning its model lineup, with the Audi Q3 Sportback among niche vehicles under review for discontinuation as the portfolio shifts toward more profitable nameplates.
Market Reaction
The preferred shares have yet to find their footing. The stock traded at €74.96 on Tuesday, down 0.43 percent on the day following a weak start to the week on Monday. The year-to-date loss stands at 28.03 percent, leaving the shares 31.29 percent below their 52-week high of €109.10 set in December. Last week's 2.11 percent decline on a weekly basis reflects investor caution about the outcome of a restructuring that must navigate plant closures, job cuts and a risky US expansion — all while the broader industry offers little room for error.
