BERLIN, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Audi's earnings slumped as a consequence of "extraordinary factors" during the third quarter (Q3) of 2018, figures published on Wednesday by the German luxury carmaker and Volkswagen Group subsidiary show.
Gross revenue and vehicle deliveries both fell from 14 billion euros to 13 billion euros and from 471,780 units to 458,488 units respectively between Q3 2017 and Q3 2018. During the same period, Audi's operating profit including special items collapsed from 1.26 billion euros to 110 million euros.
"The third quarter of this year featured numerous adverse factors for the Audi Group: As expected, restrictions in the sales portfolio caused by the changeover to WLTP had an increasingly negative effect", according to a statement published by Audi.
Aside from the new exhaust systems testing standard, the Ingolstadt-based company highlighted the imposition of an 800-million-euro "dieselgate" fine by German prosecutors and the "broadest model initiative in Audi's history" as circumstances which undermined its quarterly earnings performance.
Audi also said, however, that group revenue of 44.25 billion euros for the period from January through September has held steady at the previous year's level.
As predicted earlier by Audi and experienced by several major carmakers during the past months, a difficult transition to the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) certification standard provided particularly damaging to the company's production volumes and finances in Q3.
On Tuesday, the Volkswagen Group' flagship brand Volkswagen blamed a similar decline in vehicle sales and deliveries on the impact of the regulatory change in Q3.
