Volkswagen's profits more than double in second quarter thanks to buoyant European sales

German carmaker reports a leap in profit helped by both cost-cutting measures and sales across Europe

Investors were told about VW's systematic emissions test cheating using illegal software on 18 September 2015 (Reuters)

Volkswagen’s profits more than doubled in the second quarter of the year, helped by a boost in sales across Europe, inspiring the carmaker to raise its 2017 sales forecast.

The German group said that earnings before interest and tax rose to €4.6bn during the period, from €1.9bn a year earlier. That was more than the average forecast in a Reuters poll. The company said that it now expects revenue this year to be more than 4 per cent higher than last year’s record €217bn. Previously it had said that it expects to record revenue of up to 4 per cent higher than 2016 levels.

The VW brand recorded a 12 per cent increase in profit to €907m, partially helped by cost-cuts. The brand's quarterly operating profit margin also leapt to 4.4 per cent from under 3 per cent a year ago. It had a 2020 target of hitting at least 4 per cent.

Chief executive of Volkswagen Group, Matthias Muller, described the rise in profit as “confirmation that the Volkswagen Group is on the right path again”.

In September 2015, Volkswagen sent shockwaves through the global car industry when it admitted that it had installed so-called defeat devices in as many as 11 million diesel cars sold worldwide between 2008 and 2015.

On Thursday the company did not announce any further provisions related to the cheating scandal.

"I am firmly convinced that our financial footing is adequate to cope with the transformation in the automotive industry and topics of the future," finance chief Frank Witter said, a day after the UK Government announced that I was implementing a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2040.