FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) – The scandal Volkswagen gained global dimension Tuesday, when the German firm confessed to 11 million cars equipped worldwide with software intended to manipulate the results of pollution controls.
The revelation caused a further collapse of the shares of the leading global car sales, which came to lose more than 20% on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, after falling nearly 18% yesterday.
“New internal investigations have shown that software was installed on other diesel vehicles,” he said the firm, which since Friday dealing with revelations that fraudulent device had been placed in cars United States.
“About 11 million vehicles worldwide were equipped” with that deceptive software, the company admitted in a statement.
Volkswagen announced also be provisioned 6,500 million euros in the third quarter to face the first consequences of the case, which will “adjust its 2015 profit targets.”
“The embarramos” CEO
The CEO of Volkswagen in the United States, Michael Horn, admitted that the automotive group was dishonest in emissions testing.
“Our company was dishonest with the EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) and the committee of the California Air Resources Board, with all of you (…), the embarramos completely,” said Horn at an event in New York late Monday.
The spiraling scandal
France, Italy and South Korea announced they would open investigations and review of the German automobile company Volkswagen.
France requested an investigation Tuesday “at European level” to “reassure” the public and to control other European manufacturers.
“We are in a European market with European rules, which must be respected,” the radio Europe 1
said the French finance minister, Michel Sapin, told ” Not child trafficking issues, there is a story of speed or quality leather, this is what is done to prevent people from being poisoned by pollution, “he said.
Italy announced it will open an investigation into the German group.
“We are concerned about the matter,” he wrote in a letter to the Ministry of Transport, who asked for clarification “if what happened in the United States may occur in the European Union, even if the rules are approved different “and if such vehicles have been sold in Italy.
The Italian authorities also asked the German group to deliver “control certificates” of vehicles.
The representatives of Volkswagen in South Korea were invited by the Government to deal with Asian emission controls of their vehicles.
“Next month we will begin to carry out checks and announce the results at the end of November,” Pan-Kyu Park, deputy director of the Ministry of Environment.
He said that it was too early to contemplate any fines against the German constructor.
unaffected in Mexico by now
The case reported in the United States has failed to country, according to Corporate Communications at Volkswagen Mexico.
The area CNNExpansión told that the automaker has no reports so far indicating damages in the local market.
What denounced the United States?
The US authorities revealed that 482,000 vehicles of the Volkswagen and Audi, made between 2009 and 2015 and sold in the market, were equipped with a program computer automatically it detect pollution controls in order to falsify the results.
As a result of the scandal, the company announced Monday the suspension of marketing in the United States of its four-cylinder diesel in the VW and Audi brands, which represent 23% of sales in that market.
The losses on the stock market
At least 14,000 million euros ($ 15.6000 billion) market capitalization of the German group vanished on Monday after losing more than 18% in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
On Tuesday the action of Volkswagen fell 19%, according to market data taken at 12:50 GMT.
Whose fault is that?
The finance minister of Lower Saxony, the German state region that owns 20% of VW shares, Olaf Lies, said the scandal “is not widespread”.
“We now have to determine who knew what, who took the decisions,” added the official, who took for granted that heads will roll in the direction of Volkswagen.
The president of Volkswagen, Martin Winterkorn, will be held accountable for the situation at a meeting of a part of the Supervisory Board scheduled for Wednesday, the newspaper Handelsblatt.
In principle, Friday, Volkswagen planned to extend the mandate of Winterkorn until the end of 2018, but the scandal puts everything into question.
The manufacturer runs the risk of becoming “a pariah for the government and perhaps also for American consumers,” said Max Waburton, Bernstein analyst quoted by Bloomberg.
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