Anti-pollution rules can hit profits and sales, says Volkswagen CEO

Volkswagen Group’s CEO Herbert Diess cautioned that new anti-pollution tests possess a risk to the automaker’s profit targets.

Volkswagen has cautioned that production of up to 250,000 cars is going to be delayed as it struggles to adapt its automobiles to a new anti-pollution test, the Worldwide Harmonized Light Duty Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP).

In a press conference on Wednesday to talk about second-quarter results, Diess stated the ongoing changeover to the WLTP test procedure poses “the biggest volume and revenues risk for Volkswagen.”

Diess stated a strategic alliance VW is pursuing with American automaker Ford Motor has “very promising potential.”

The two automakers stated in June they were discussion about jointly developing and building a series of commercial vehicles, including vans.

Volkswagen’s CEO stated the company expects an alliance with Ford could bring the German automaker yearly cost savings of up to 400 million euros ($466.88 million).

A spokesman for Ford stated the company would give details on the strategic details toward the end of this year.

“We believe the work streams, consisting commercial vehicles, have significant potential but are not talking about values yet,” the spokesman stated.