Manufacturer cuts profit margin range for year as German car exports to US fall sharply

The German car manufacturer Volkswagen has said Donald Trump’s US import tariffs have cost it more than £1bn in the first half of the year.

Volkswagen said it had made strong progress realigning the company, which is considering cutting 35,000 jobs by 2030, but that it had suffered a €1.3bn (£1.13bn) “decline in operating result primarily due to high costs from increased US import tariffs”.

The company has also reduced its profit margin range to be between 4% and 5% for the year, based on an assumption that tariffs of between 10%, at best, and the current 27.5%, at worst, will be made permanent by the US president.