There’s no denying that Volkswagen’s emission-cheating stunt had a negative impact on the automotive industry, but their repercussions could be more serious than initially estimated.
For example, Continental’s CEO, Elmar Degenhart, fears that the future of diesel cars could be in jeopardy in some regions.
According to Reuters, Degenhart told a German newspaper that Volkswagen’s “Dieselgate” could kill nascent markets for diesel cars in North America, Japan, and China.
“The diesel passenger car could sooner or later disappear from these markets.”, he commented. Which, given that diesels have only a 1-3 percent stake there, could be possible.
Regarding Dieselgate, Degenhart said that Continental hadn’t supplied any software to manipulate emission tests to any of its clients. He also made clear that the German automotive manufacturing company wasn’t aware of any legal investigations against it in the scandal: “We developed and supplied the engine controllers in line with VW’s specifications. The installation and tuning of the software, the so-called calibration, was done by VW.”
In contrast, staff from Bosch, the biggest automotive supplier, are being investigated by public prosecutors to find out whether they were involved in the diesel scandal.
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