Article Continued Below“The second-quarter results are pretty good, but if you compare the VW brand margin to direct competitors, there’s still quite a gap,” said Sascha Gommel, a Frankfurt-based analyst with Commerzbank AG. Complicating the effort to lift margins, the brand has had to spend more money to lure customers in the wake of the scandal. Volkswagen AG’s efforts to make its biggest division more competitive fell short as the namesake VW brand’s profit margin dropped further behind those of rival European carmakers in the first half. That widened the gap between VW and its European mass-market competitors, as Peugeot maker PSA Group reported a 6.8 first-half margin from carmaking, while Renault SA achieved 4.7 per cent. The marque’s margin shrunk to 1.7 per cent from 2.7 per cent a year ago, according to Bloomberg calculations based on a statement from the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company Thursday.

Source: thestar July 28, 2016 15:13 UTC