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Financial key performance indicators

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FINANCIAL KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017¹

Volkswagen Group

Gross margin

18.9

17.5

19.5

19.7

19.0

Personnel expense ratio

17.5

18.2

17.0

17.5

17.0

Operating return on sales

7.7

4.3

6.7

5.9

6.0

Return on sales before tax

8.0

5.2

7.3

6.6

6.0

Return on sales after tax

6.2

4.0

5.6

5.2

5.0

Equity ratio

27.6

25.9

25.3

25.6

25.8

Automotive Division²

Change in unit sales year-on-year³

−6.3

−16.4

+0.5

+1.1

+3.7

Change in sales revenue year-on-year

+13.3

−14.3

+5.7

+2.7

+5.3

Research and development costs as a percentage of sales revenue

7.6

6.7

6.8

6.7

Operating return on sales

6.4

3.7

6.5

5.5

5.7

EBITDA (in € million)⁴

31,609

24,462

29,706

26,707

26,094

Return on investment (ROI)⁵

10.4

6.5

11.2

11.0

12.1

Cash flows from operating activities as a percentage of sales revenue

15.7

13.6

14.5

9.2

6.0

Cash flows from investing activities attributable to operating activities as a percentage of sales revenue

11.5

10.1

9.4

9.0

Capex as a percentage of sales revenue

5.1

6.1

6.6

6.5

Net liquidity as a percentage of sales revenue

10.7

12.0

8.4

8.2

9.7

Ratio of noncurrent assets to total assets⁶

23.1

24.7

26.4

23.3

23.7

Ratio of current assets to total assets⁷

14.8

15.4

17.0

17.6

16.3

Inventory turnover⁸

5.0

4.4

4.8

5.0

5.1

Equity ratio

40.1

38.1

37.6

37.9

36.9

Financial Services Division

Increase in total assets

5.6

0.7

7.9

11.2

6.0

Return on equity before tax⁹

17.3

8.8

10.8

9.9

9.8

Equity ratio

14.5

13.2

12.8

12.7

13.7

1	Adjusted.
2	Including allocation of consolidation adjustments between the Automotive and Financial Services divisions.
3	Including the Chinese joint ventures. These companies are accounted for using the equity method.
4	Operating result plus net depreciation/amortization and impairment losses/reversals of impairment losses on property, plant and equipment, capitalized development costs, lease assets, goodwill and financial assets as reported in the cash flow statement.
5	For details, see the section entitled “Return on investment (ROI) and value contribution in the reporting period” in the chapter entitled “Results of Operations, Financial Position and Net Assets”.
6	Ratio of property, plant and equipment to total assets.
7	Ratio of inventories to total assets at the balance sheet date.
8	Ratio of sales revenue to average monthly inventories.
9	Earnings before tax as a percentage of average equity.