RECORD Audi and Porsche sales helped Volkswagen (VW) swing to a record underlying profit in 2016, although a bigger than expected charge from the diesel emissions scandal meant it missed estimates for its operating profit.

    Sales of the German carmaker’s luxury brands lifted underlying operating profit before special items 14 percent to 14.6 billion euros (US$15.5 billion) in 2016, after the company reported its biggest ever loss in 2015.

    VW forecast broadly stable earnings this year.

    Underlying profit was broadly in line with forecasts for the world’s biggest car manufacturer by volume sales, which hiked its dividend more than expected after group sales rose to new highs, with an 8.1 percent jump in fourth quarter deliveries.

    VW is struggling with the fallout from its admission 17 months ago that it rigged U.S. diesel emissions tests, a scandal that some analysts have estimated may cost it more than US$30 billion in fines, compensation and vehicle refits.

    VW has since embraced a costly shift to more electric vehicles and last year eclipsed Toyota as the world’s top-selling carmaker with record deliveries of 10.3 million.

    Although group sales fell 4 percent in January on the back of national holidays and a tax hike on small-engine cars in China, its biggest market, VW forecast an underlying operating margin of between 6 and 7 percent for 2017, compared with the 6.7 percent it achieved last year.

    But the damage from the emissions cheating affair took its toll, with VW booking bigger-than-expected one-off charges of 7.5 billion euros in 2016, of which 6.4 billion were related to the emissions-test rigging scandal.

    (SD-Agencies)