Tag Archives: associates

BMW

Training center opened at BMW Group plant in Debrecen

+++ 100 students starting training in Debrecen +++ 6,500m² state of the art Training Centre for associates and students +++ Milestone on the road to NEUE KLASSE +++

 

Debrecen / Munich. The BMW Group has officially opened the Training Center at its new plant in Debrecen, Hungary. The company is making a significant investment of over one billion euros in the site, which will be the production hub for the first all-electric model of the Neue Klasse starting in 2025. The BMW Group recognizes the critical role of education and training in developing highly skilled employees.

The Neue Klasse represents the next generation of BMW models, combining the company’s innovation in the areas of electrification, digitization, and circularity.

The opening of the Training Center in Debrecen marks an important milestone in the BMW Group’s journey towards commencing Neue Klasse production in 2025.

The newly equipped Training Center spans an impressive area of almost 6,500 square meters, with an investment of nearly 20 million euros. It is specifically designed to provide training to employees of the BMW Group Plant in Debrecen, as well as trainees and dual education students, equipping them with the necessary skills required for the production of the new generation of models.

Ilka Horstmeier, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, People and Real Estate, Labour Relations Director, highlighted the significance of the event, stating, “The Neue Klasse represents our vision for the future, as it enables us to completely rethink mobility and collaboration. Our employees play a crucial role in shaping our transformation, and education and training are pivotal factors in our company’s future direction. By commencing the training of the first 100 students and the opening of the Training Center in Debrecen, we emphasize the importance of education and training for the future success of our company.”

The number of trainees is expected to reach a total of up to 300 by 2025, making it one of Hungary’s largest apprentice training programs.

Through collaboration with the Debrecen Vocational Training Center, the BMW Group offers a dual training program that provides students with valuable skills for a potential career. The program, which lasts for three years, covers areas such as mechatronics, electronics, automotive mechatronics, and IT systems and applications. All these capabilities are vital for future automotive production. The state-of-the-art Training Center offers advanced facilities and a high-tech learning environment. After successful completion of the apprenticeship, trainees are offered employment contracts by the BMW Group or have the option to pursue further education.

Hans-Peter Kemser, President and CEO of BMW Group Plant Debrecen, expressed his enthusiasm for the new Training Center, stating, “We are delighted to welcome the first apprentices to our facility. Here, we will provide them with comprehensive knowledge about automotive production, our processes, and the BMW culture. Our culture is key to a successful future in Debrecen. We function as one plant, one team, counting on each other and valuing everyone’s contributions and knowledge.”

In addition to its initiatives for students and trainees, and creating new employment opportunities, the BMW Group plans to collaborate with local and regional universities to support and implement art and cultural projects. This commitment reflects the company’s commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen and actively engaging with local communities.

Peter Szijjártó, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, commented on the occasion, saying, “We are delighted that the BMW Group is bringing its latest technologies to Hungary and will produce its newest battery-electric model here in Debrecen in the future. The Training Center will enhance cooperation between Hungary and Germany, providing young students with excellent prospects for the future through the joint education and training program.”

The Training Center at the BMW Group plant in Debrecen is one of the first fully completed buildings on the 400-hectare site that is already operational. The Communication Center will be the next major structure to be completed and functional.

The BMW Group planned and developed the Debrecen plant as an iFACTORY and aims to power it entirely with fossil-free energy, making it the world’s first production plant of its kind. A significant portion of the energy needed will be generated by a 50-hectare photovoltaic system directly installed on the factory premises.

The plant has been designed to have a production capacity of 150,000 units per year.

VolvoCars

Volvo Cars Q3 results: momentum continues while performing and transforming

  • Q3 revenue was SEK 92 bn (SEK 79 bn in Q3 2022)

  • Q3 operating income (excluding JVs and associates) was SEK 6.1 bn (SEK 3.5 bn in Q3 2022)

  • Q3 operating income was SEK 4.5 bn (SEK 2.1 bn in Q3 2022)

  • Q3 EBIT margin (excluding JVs and associates) was 6.7 per cent (4.4 per cent in Q3 2022)

  • Q3 EBIT margin was 4.8 per cent (2.6 per cent in Q3 2022)

  • Q3 basic earnings per share was SEK 1.01 (SEK 0.11 in Q3 2022)

  • Q3 fully electric car sales share at 13 per cent (7 per cent in Q3 2022)

Volvo Cars today reports an almost 75 per cent increase in operating profits, excluding joint ventures and associates, to SEK 6.1 bn for the third quarter of 2023. The EBIT (operating) margin excluding joint ventures and associates came in at 6.7 per cent, compared with a margin of 4.4 per cent in the same period last year. The company saw strong sales and revenue growth during the quarter, which in combination with lower costs for raw materials and logistics resulted in a solid underlying operating profit.

“Our operating performance is gathering momentum, while we continue to make steady progress on our transformation objectives,” said Jim Rowan, President and Chief Executive of Volvo Cars. “As such, the quarter developed as we planned and communicated, putting us in a good position to close out the year with solid double-digit growth in retail volumes and a considerably higher share of fully electric cars for the full year. At the same time, uncertainties remain on the horizon, and we continue to be watchful.”

The full CEO report, with more detailed highlights of the quarter, is included in the interim report for the period and can be found here.

Retail sales continued to improve during the quarter, with solid double-digit growth in all three months and sales growth of 22 per cent for the period compared with the third quarter of 2022. That means Volvo Cars has now reported 13 consecutive months of retail sales growth, illustrating solid demand for its cars despite pricing pressures in many parts of the world.

The company’s pure electric sales share of 13 per cent for the quarter was almost double what it was in the same period in 2022, increasing by 111 per cent year on year. This underlines how Volvo Cars is well on its way to become one of the fastest transformers in the industry. The launch of the competitively priced, fully electric EX30 SUV will serve to strengthen its position and help the company in its ambition to become a fully electric car company by 2030.

Customer response to models such as the EX30 has been strong, and the small SUV generated higher than expected pre-orders. EX30 production started in the third quarter and the first cars are expected to be delivered during Q4, with production and deliveries ramping up in earnest in 2024.

When Volvo Cars revealed the EX30 in June, it indicated it was exploring additional manufacturing locations globally, and earlier today the company announced its plan to expand production of the EX30 and to also build it at the Ghent plant in Belgium from 2025. This decision reflects the strong demand for the EX30, supports Volvo Cars’ strategy of building where it sells, and boosts production capacity for the car in Europe as well as for global export.

Q3 operating and financial performance
The solid operational performance and good momentum was reflected in the company’s key operational indicators. Production volumes in the third quarter were up by 16 per cent versus the same period a year ago, as availability and visibility continued to improve in the supply chain.

Commercially, Volvo Cars’ order book remained stable and the company managed to maintain premium pricing. Its strong brand position, based on safety, quality and Scandinavian design, has proven to be a real asset in maintaining its premium pricing position. As a result, the company booked a revenue for the quarter of SEK 92 billion, up 16 per cent compared with the same period last year.

At the same time, the gross margin continued to improve and came in at 19.6 per cent, helped by improving margins on electric cars, which came in at 9 per cent and was significantly up compared with the last quarter. This underscores that lower lithium prices are starting to have an effect, as well as the company is realizing the effects of increased pricing on model-year 2024 fully electric cars – as indicated during the previous quarter. Once the EX30 starts to be shipped to customers, it will further boost Volvo Cars’ profitable growth in fully electric cars, which the company believes will position it well versus many of its competitors.

In addition to lower raw material prices, costs for freight and other logistics have also eased. Spot buy costs for key components such as semiconductors were also reduced, while Volvo Cars’ internal cost efficiency and optimization initiatives are starting to bear fruit.

With regards to its climate action plan, Volvo Cars continued to make progress in its efforts to reduce its CO2 footprint per car. During the first nine months of the year, overall CO2 emissions per car were 19 per cent lower compared with our 2018 benchmark, supporting our mid-decade ambition of a 40 per cent CO2 reduction per car.

Looking ahead
The performance for the third quarter puts Volvo Cars in a position to close out the year in line with earlier communications: solid double-digit growth in retail volumes for the full year and an increased share of fully electric cars versus 2022.

This positions the company well for a fast start in 2024, when it will bring three new fully electric models on the roads. Deliveries of the EX30 to customers are starting soon, and on 12 November it will reveal the Volvo EM90, the company’s first ever premium multi-purpose vehicle (MPV). That means that in less than six months, Volvo Cars will have unveiled two brand-new cars into two new segments, on top of the EX90 revealed late last year.

The company’s current trajectory shows that the building blocks for its transformation in recent years are starting to deliver at pace. Rather than simply delivering on its transformation passively, Volvo Cars chooses to actively engage with wider changes in the key technology shifts for the future and be one of the fastest industry transformers.

“We remain vigilant in light of the macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties and remain laser-focused on execution,” said Jim Rowan. “We will continue to emphasize cost-consciousness throughout our organization and constantly work to make our business more efficient and more sustainable.”

This disclosure contains information that Volvo Car AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU nr 596/2014). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 26-10-2023 07:00 CET.

VolvoCars

Volvo Cars Q2 results: full speed ahead in transformation with a solid business performance

  • Q2 revenue was SEK 102.2 bn (SEK 71.3 bn in Q2 2022)

  • Q2 EBIT (excluding JVs and associates) was SEK 6.4 bn (SEK 4.6 bn in Q2 2022)

  • Q2 EBIT was SEK 5.0 bn (SEK 10.8 bn in Q2 2022)

  • Q2 EBIT margin, excluding JVs and associates and without non-recurring items, was 7.2 per cent

  • Q2 EBIT margin (excluding JVs and associates) was 6.3 per cent (6.5 per cent in Q2 2022)

  • Q2 EBIT margin was 4.9 per cent (15.1 per cent in Q2 2022)

  • Q2 basic earnings per share was SEK 1.12 (SEK 3.00 in Q2 2022)

  • Q2 fully electric car sales share at 16 per cent (7 per cent in Q2 2022)

Volvo Cars today reports a 39 per cent increase in operating profits, excluding joint ventures and associates, to SEK 6.4 bn and a corresponding EBIT margin of 6.3 per cent for the second quarter of 2023. The result came despite a SEK 0.9 bn non-recurring item related to the redundancy programme announced in May, part of securing a more efficient and sustainable cost base for the future. Without this item, the underlying EBIT margin, excluding joint ventures and associates, was 7.2 per cent in the second quarter. This illustrates that the solid underlying performance momentum from the first three months of the year continued during this past quarter.

The company’s EBIT, including joint ventures and associates, reached SEK 5 bn, which was lower compared to the corresponding period last year. This is mainly because group EBIT for the second quarter of 2022 was positively influenced by the one-time, non-recurring accounting effects of Polestar’s listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York. The interim report for the second quarter of 2023 can be found here.

“The second quarter of 2023 shows that the year is shaping up as planned,” said Jim Rowan, President and Chief Executive. “In these past three months we have continued to deliver on our ambitious transformation goals and made steady progress. At the same time, we also achieved a solid underlying business performance with increased sales and revenues. We are performing and transforming, while navigating the external challenges that have come our way.”

During the quarter, the company reported a continued strong sales performance in electric cars. Sales of fully electric Volvo car models increased by 178 per cent year-on-year during the quarter and accounted for 16 per cent of its total share. The company’s newly launched fully electric cars – the Volvo EX90 and EX30 SUV models – are not yet in production and have so far not contributed to the company’s 2023 performance. Once these new cars hit the roads, they will further boost fully electric car sales towards Volvo Cars’ ambitious goal to sell only fully electric cars by 2030.

While it delivered a higher percentage of fully electric cars during the quarter, the company’s margins on fully electric cars were impacted in this period because the lithium used in these cars was sourced when prices peaked during late 2022.

Additionally, as it introduced new model year 2024 fully electric cars with a considerably better range than existing models, Volvo Cars proactively shifted out the inventory of model year 2023 cars.

As the company enters the second half of 2023 this dynamic will change, since it will not only benefit from lower lithium prices, but also realise the effects of increased pricing on MY2024 fully electric cars. Therefore, margins on fully electric cars are expected to improve in the coming quarters.

Last month, Volvo Cars also revealed the fully electric EX30, its first ever small SUV. With this car, the company enters an important new segment and customer demographic, and one that it expects to grow rapidly in the coming years. The EX30 will also boost the company’s profitable growth in fully electric cars, with expected gross margins on the car in the range of 15 to 20 per cent. Both the EX30 and the larger EX90 are exciting steps into the future and clearly demonstrate Volvo Cars’ course going forward: premium electric cars, built on next-generation electric architectures with advanced battery and computing technology, as well as next-level passive and active safety features.

Volvo Cars continued its commercial transformation this past quarter. In June, it reached another key milestone when the United Kingdom became its first market to fully transform from a traditional wholesale business to a direct consumer model that is designed around flexibility for the customer. The knowledge it gains from the UK commercial transformation will be crucial as the company plans to make more markets fully direct in the coming years, together with its trusted retail partners. This will both improve the overall customer experience and make its commercial network more efficient, transparent and cost-effective.

In May, Volvo Cars also increased the focus on the global cost optimisation and resource efficiency initiative it launched late last year. This included a global redundancy programme including around 1,300 office-based positions in Sweden, as part of efforts to reduce costs and drive efficiencies across its global operations. The aim is to establish a more efficient and sustainable cost base for the future, by restructuring and changing ways of working in parts of the organisation, as well as focusing even more on securing the relevant skills it needs to be successful.

Q2 operating and financial performance

In terms of its operational performance during the second quarter, Volvo Cars recorded revenues of SEK 102.2 billion, an increase of 43 per cent versus the same period in 2022. It also saw a solid global sales increase of 25 per cent to 178,800 cars sold, a strong performance in electrified car sales, as well as continued premium pricing in many markets.

The sales performance was helped by improved production output in the company’s factories. During the second quarter, it produced 50 per cent more cars than in the same period last year. This is a validation of the steps the company introduced to make its supply chain more resilient, such as broadening its supplier base, improving performance and delivery from its suppliers, developing direct relationships with key semi-conductor companies and foundries, and creating more transparency in the overall value chain.

Second-quarter EBIT, excluding joint ventures and associates, was weighed down by a non-recurring item of about SEK 0.9 billion, but still came in at SEK 6.4 billion, an increase of 39 per cent year-on-year. This cost was related to the redundancy programme that was part of the enhanced cost-efficiency initiative announced in May.

Efforts to reduce the company’s CO2 footprint per car also continued to progress. During the second quarter of the year, overall CO2 emissions per car were 18.8 per cent lower compared with its 2018 benchmark, supporting its mid-decade ambition of a 40 per cent CO2 reduction per car.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year

2023 remains a crucial year in Volvo Cars’ transformation. With more new electric cars on the way and work ongoing on a new battery plant in Sweden and its planned new electric car factory in Slovakia, the company is putting in place important building blocks for its next growth phase.

It has opened a new Tech Hub in Krakow, Poland, which will complement existing ones in Stockholm and Lund in Sweden, and Bangalore in India. These Tech Hubs and its other R&D centres will help Volvo Cars deliver on its ambition to become a leader in future mobility, by creating a global powerhouse of next-generation technology. The company will also continue its commercial transformation towards more direct business and a constantly improving customer experience.

More broadly speaking, the company sees supply and demand continue to normalise in the wider market, which brings some additional pricing pressure as price levels have also started to normalise in several markets. Yet while rising interest rates in some of its largest markets put pressure on the consumer and the overall market, demand for Volvo cars continues to be healthy.

Assuming there are no further unexpected supply chain disruptions, Volvo Cars expects a solid double-digit growth in retail sales for the full year. It also expects the share of fully electric car sales to come in even higher than last year’s full-year share of 11 per cent.

“We’re staying the course and continue to make progress towards our ambition to be a leader in next-generation mobility,” said Jim Rowan. “The proof of a real transformation is in its execution and that is where our focus continues to be as we head into the second half of 2023.”

This disclosure contains information that Volvo Car AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU nr 596/2014) and the Swedish Securities Markets Act (2007:528). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 20-07-2023 07:00 CET.