Volkswagen says earnings up more than 50 per cent in 2017

BERLIN – Automaker Volkswagen AG says its net profit increased by more than half last year, while revenue climbed more than 6 per cent.

The company said Friday it earned 4.35 billion euros ($5.35 billion) in 2017, a 55.5 per cent increase over the previous year’s 2.8 billion euros. Revenue rose to 230.7 billion euros from 217.3 billion euros.

Volkswagen said special items related to the diesel scandal that broke in 2015 again reduced earnings, though the total cost of special items was down to 3.2 billion euros from 7.5 billion euros in 2016.

The company already said it had record sales of 10.74 million vehicles last year. It said Friday that it “expects to moderately exceed its latest record delivery figures” this year, while revenue may rise as much as 5 per cent.