Volkswagen's reported Battery business revenue grew from €26 million to €237 million over the first nine months of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. That is an increase of €211 million, or 9.1 times the previous year's figure. But the division's operating loss improved by just €5 million: from €1.054 billion to €1.049 billion, according to Volkswagen's October 29 earnings disclosure.1
The contrast is easy to miss in coverage dominated by Volkswagen's much larger group-wide earnings and Porsche-related charges. More importantly, it separates reported battery-business sales revenue from actual battery-cell output or manufacturing profitability, which the published financial table does not establish.1
Three years of Battery financial results
A comparison of Volkswagen's October 29, 2026 nine-month report with its original October 30, 2025 report produces the following picture. All three columns refer to January through September, not full financial years.12
| Volkswagen-reported Battery business, € millions | 2024* | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales revenue | 1 | 26 | 237 |
| Operating result | -371 | -1,054 | -1,049 |
Volkswagen labeled its 2024 figures as adjusted prior-year comparatives in the October 2025 release. The 2025 figures appear in both releases; this table is an independently assembled historical comparison of Volkswagen's disclosed rows, not a standalone PowerCo financial statement.12
The revenue gain from €26 million to €237 million equals approximately 812% from a very small starting base. Over that same comparison, the nine-month operating loss narrowed by about 0.5%. Those are two different trends: Volkswagen reported substantially more revenue under its Battery line without a correspondingly large reduction in the line's operating loss.1
The 2024 column shows why the longer reporting history is worth examining: the reported 2024 Battery line had €1 million in revenue and a €371 million operating loss, while the 2025 and 2026 losses were each above €1 billion. The adjusted-comparator qualification matters, and the tables alone do not identify which operations or changes in business structure explain that progression.12
Why this is not a PowerCo cell-sales figure
Volkswagen's 2025 annual report describes its broader battery business as encompassing the Center of Excellence Battery, which handles battery-system and cell-related activities, and PowerCo, which manages the group's cell-production network. But the nine-month financial row is labeled only Battery. Neither inspected earnings table separates PowerCo's standalone sales, identifies external battery-cell customers, or counts cells or gigawatt-hours produced.123
That matters for interpreting the ninefold increase: a higher reported accounting revenue figure does not prove nine times as many battery cells were manufactured or sold. Nor is the €1.049 billion operating loss a disclosed cash outflow, factory-construction bill, or loss attributable to a single site. Volkswagen's October 29 release separately reports group-level special charges, including a Porsche goodwill impairment, without breaking the Battery row into comparable plant-level causes.1
Volkswagen commissioned its Salzgitter battery-cell factory in December 2025, and our earlier report on the Salzgitter ramp covered PowerCo management's stated production targets for 2026. Those targets and the new Battery accounting figures measure different things: the October earnings table provides no independently verified cell volume against which to test the manufacturing ramp.41
For now, the verifiable result is narrower than either a battery-production boom or a factory-profitability turnaround: €237 million in nine-month Battery revenue and a still-approximately-€1.05-billion operating loss, with no standalone cell-output or PowerCo customer breakdown in the two earnings tables reviewed.12
Sources
Footnotes
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Volkswagen Group, October 29, 2026, "Volkswagen Group: Nine-month results underline urgent need for action," original first-nine-month 2026 financial disclosure, checked October 29. The "Battery" line of the company-issued brand-group/business-field table lists €237 million/€26 million revenue and -€1,049 million/-€1,054 million operating results for 2026/2025. It does not separately establish cell shipments, PowerCo external sales or plant-level financial causes. https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/volkswagen-group-nine-month-results-underline-urgent-need-for-action-20799 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10
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Volkswagen Group, October 30, 2025, "Volkswagen Group makes decent progress in a difficult environment," original first-nine-month 2025 release, checked October 29, 2026. The "Battery" line shows €26 million/€1 million revenue and -€1,054 million/-€371 million operating results for 2025/2024; Volkswagen labels prior-year 2024 comparatives adjusted. https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/volkswagen-group-makes-decent-progress-in-a-difficult-environment-19924 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
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Volkswagen Group Annual Report 2025, "Technology," company-authored description of the Center of Excellence Battery and PowerCo roles, checked October 29, 2026. This business description does not reconcile the separate legal entities to the interim financial Battery row. https://annualreport2025.volkswagen-group.com/group-management-report/sustainable-value-enhancement/technology.html ↩
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Volkswagen Group, December 17, 2025, "Start of European battery cell production: PowerCo commissions Salzgitter gigafactory," historical plant-commissioning announcement. Not evidence of current cell output, financial attribution or delivery of later 2026 targets. https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/start-of-european-battery-cell-production-powerco-commissions-salzgitter-gigafactory-20045 ↩