Volkswagen sets aside $7.3 billion over emissions scandal

Volkswagen New Beetle is lifted inside a delivery tower after the company's annual press conference in Wolfsburg, Germany.

The crisis enveloping Volkswagen AG, the world's top-selling carmaker, escalated on Tuesday as the company issued a profit warning following a stunning admission that some 11 million of its diesel vehicles worldwide were fitted with software at the centre of a US emissions scandal.
In a statement, the German company said it was setting aside around 6.5 billion euros ($7.3 billion) to cover the fallout from the scandal that is tarnishing VW's reputation for probity and seriously undermining its share price. There was no mention of any fines or penalties.
In the wake of its statement, VW's share price was down another 17.6 per cent at 110.20 euros and near a four-year low. The fall comes on top of Monday's hefty 17 percent decline and means the company has lost an eye-watering 25 billion euros or so in just two days of frenzied trading.
The trigger to the company's market woes was last Friday's revelation from the US's Environmental Protection Agency that VW rigged nearly half a million cars to defeat US smog tests.
The company then admitted that it intentionally installed software programmed to switch engines to a cleaner mode during official emissions testing. The software then switches off again, enabling cars to drive more powerfully on the road while emitting as much as 40 times the legal pollution limit.
In its statement on Tuesday, Volkswagen gave more details, admitting that "discrepancies" related to vehicles with Type EA 189 engines and involved some 11 million vehicles worldwide.
"A noticeable deviation between bench test results and actual road use was established solely for this type of engine," it said. "Volkswagen is working intensely to eliminate these deviations through technical measures."
To cover the necessary service measures and what it says are "other efforts to win back the trust of our customers," VW said is setting aside some 6.5 billion euros in the current quarter.
That figure, it conceded, may be subject to revaluation in the light of ongoing investigations. As a result, it said 2015 earnings targets will be adjusted but it didn't specify by how much.
It added that the software is also installed in other vehicles with diesel engines but that that for the "majority of these engines the software does not have any effect."
Volkswagen said that new vehicles with EU 6 diesel engines currently on sale in the European Union comply with legal requirements and environmental standards.
CEO Martin Winterkorn issued an apology on Sunday for the US scandal, promised an internal investigation and acknowledged that his company had "broken the trust of our customers and the public."
VW's troubles already are not confined to the US
South Korea said Tuesday it would investigate emission levels of Volkswagen diesel vehicles in the wake of the rigging scandal in the US that has heaped pressure on Winterkorn. The German government is to also conduct new emissions tests in VW's diesel cars, while France called for a wider Europe-wide investigation into Volkswagen's practices - and into those of French carmakers.
Even before Tuesday's statement, a member of Volkswagen's supervisory board suggested that heads will roll in the wake of the scandal, though he said it was too soon to start assigning blame.