BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen said on Wednesday that it expects incoming orders in Western Europe to pick up speed in the coming months thanks to the German carmaker's new models.

This also applies to the electric cars that are already on the market and for which Volkswagen has started the new year with a clearly positive trend, it said. Volkswagen recently launched the ID.7 on the market. More than 30 new models have been announced across the Group for the current year.

The carmaker earlier this month released a muted outlook and a higher dividend, rewarding shareholders ahead of what it expects a tougher year for car markets in light of rising costs, tougher competition and higher inflation.

The company is currently in cost-cutting mode and has unveiled plans to slash administrative staff costs at its namesake brand by a fifth, adding this would happen via partial and early retirement as opposed to layoffs.

Volkswagen said the operating return on sales of its brand group Core rose to 5.3% from 3.6% in 2023, in an important first step towards its target of 8%.

The rise for the group including Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Skoda and SEAT/CUPRA is primarily due to strong sales revenue growth, with a 21% increase to 137.8 billion euros ($150.55 billion), it said.

($1 = 0.9153 euros)