‘Dieselgate’ costs choke Volkswagen profits

Frankfurt am Main: Net profits tumbled in the third quarter at Volkswagen as the world’s biggest carmaker booked higher-than-expected charges related to the “dieselgate” emissions cheating scandal. VW reported net profit attributable to shareholders down 53.4 per cent year-on-year, at 1.06 billion euros ($1.23 billion), but lifted its forecast for the full year despite the tumble. The group had warned last month that it would have to set aside more cash to deal with a recall of around 500,000 diesel cars in the United States rigged to cheat emissions tests. The provisions turned out 100 million euros higher than the group had forecast, at 2.6 rather than 2.5 billion euros. The charge brings the total VW has now set aside to handle “dieselgate” — the scandal that saw it admit in 2015 to manipulating millions of cars worldwide to fool regulators — to more than 25 billion euros. — AFP