In a span of 15 years, Volkswagen was on an income roll, posting quarterly acquisition despite the overwhelming U.S. downturn and the encounter of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
However, on Wednesday, it all came to an end. VW announced a net loss of $1.84 billion in the third quarter, an abrupt fall from its income of approximately $3.3 billion in the previous year's quarter.
The only cause was the radiation cheating rumors that has covered VW in the United States and Europe. VW released its statement that it has put aside $7.3 billion to cover the primary expense of fixing cars with diesel engines and compensating their owners and experts believe that the figures are set to rise in the forthcoming months.
As a matter of fact, VW was expecting that in 2015, their net income would be significantly down based on its 2014 reports.
VW has already ceased its sales of diesel powered cars in the U.S., where the cheating rumors were identified on Sept. 18. VW also admitted that its cars were outfitted with a "defeat device" granting their diesel emissions to be measured in normal dimensions, when in fact; the cars were surpassing pollution restrictions.
The equipment has affected 500,000 cars in the United States, and some 8.5 million across Europe. There also are inspection underway in a number of VW's other global markets, including South Africa, Japan and China.
According to Alexander Dobrindt, Germany's federal minister of transport and digital infrastructure, from an interview by journalists in Washington, it will take some time before VW can issue a timetable for repairing cars in the US.
On his statement to Bloomberg, Dobrindt said that there are still no plans yet for an all-inclusive recall as there are still no clear plans of how the technical facets will be handled.
For the time being, VW may have endured another blow to its global control. It passed Toyota this summer by being the world's biggest car manufacturer. However, sales reports show that Toyota took the title back during the third quarter.
