Tough new tests backed — European Union vehicle emissions

Filling several pages in its financial report for the third quarter, Volkswagen provided a list of potential risks, including confirmation that it is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The company set aside almost €7 billion ($7.75 billion) to address the continued situation, but officials now say that won’t be enough.

Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt met in Washington this week with U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy.

During tests, the Volkswagen diesel engines with illegal software make full use of pollution controls and can pass emissions tests. But our priorities are hybrids and fuel cell cars.

ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images Matthias Mueller, CEO of German vehicle maker Volkswagen, poses before addressing journalists at an assembly line of the VW plant in Wolfsburg, central Germany, on October 21, 2015. Roughly half of those were in Europe. Most pressing are the cost and timing of recalls for 8.5 million cars in Europe and 480,000 in the U.S. Though a few will only need a software update, left unclear is exactly how Volkswagen will fix those that require new parts.

Analysts took comfort in VW’s robust balance sheet, however, suggesting it should be able to cope with the final bill for the scandal which a few have said could reach 35 billion euros. For the nine months up to September, the loss was €3.3 billion, a 64-per cent dive from €9.4 billion a year ago. The company warned Wednesday that operating profit this year would be “down significantly” as a result of the scandal.

The performance of the company’s main vehicle brands remained strong in the quarter, though the deterioration of emerging markets such as Russian Federation and Brazil continued and sales and earnings in China weakened. Mueller said the company needed to place less emphasis on raw sales numbers and become more open and leaner to help prevent any repeat of the scandal.

His remarks went right to the point.

He said in a statement: “We will do everything in our power to win back the trust we have lost”. A substantial portion of that came from VW’s sale of its stake in Suzuki Motor. It will be “enormous, but manageable”, the company’s new financial chief, Frank Witter, told reporters.

“There’s been a slight impact but overall on a group level we are fine with order intake and the diesel [to gasoline vehicle sales] ratio”, said sales chief Axel Kalthoff.

Looking aheadVW still expects its full-year deliveries to be roughly on par with 2014 results. Sales revenue rose 5.3 percent to 51.49 billion euros.

VW also maintains that while sales are down, it hasn’t seen the diesel scandal impacting sales and orders for diesel vehicles.