“The fiscal burden is tremendous but manageable… but we’ll emerge stronger and more slender than in the past”.
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Without giving precise numbers, the German government said “thoroughness must take precedence over speed” and “the diesel engine should be preserved as a powertrain option on the mass market”, while any conformity factor needed to be pragmatic.
That was still better than analysts had expected: according to Factset, consensus forecasts had put the anticipated net loss at 2.11 billion euros.
Volkswagen has already said the cost of the scandal will exceed the 6.7 billion euros it has set aside. Indeed, Volkswagen ended the third quarter with almost €30 billion in cash and equivalents.
Sales still went up by about 5 percent – but mostly thanks to Volkswagen’s other brands: the not-so-tarnished Audi, Bentley, and Porsche.
“Our customers’ confidence and trust is what is most important to us and we are doing everything what we can to win back this trust in our brand and in our great products”.
VW also maintains that while sales are down, it hasn’t seen the diesel scandal impacting sales and orders for diesel vehicles.
“The Volkswagen group has very solid and robust liquidity resources. This will help us manage the challenging situation caused by the financial impact of the diesel issue”, insisted CFO Witter.
Group sales in the third quarter were up 8.5% from a year earlier to €160bn, although it is worth noting that news of the emissions jiggery-pokery only broke in mid-September.
Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller had a surprise motto in store for the embattled carmaker after reporting its first loss in more than 15 years: It should be a fun place to work again. Sales revenue rose 5.3% to €51.5 billion.
The company posted a 3.48 billion-euro ($3.84 billion) third-quarter operating loss, compared with a 3.23 billion-euro profit a year ago.
The Environmental Protection Agency found that cars with defeat device software produced nitrogen oxide pollutants at up to 40 times the legal standard.
Reserves may keep growing in the fourth quarter when proceeds from a transaction involving VW’s holding in financing company LeasePlan, valued at 3.7 billion euros, are expected to be booked, analysts said. On Wednesday, the financial consequences of the fraud began to become apparent.
Analysts estimate that the final cost to the company could run to tens of billions of euros.
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VW shares were trading up 3.2 percent at 108.5 euros as of 1030 GMT, the top performer in Germany’s blue-chip DAX index.
