VW scandal 'could cost €60bn'
More from Professor David Bailey of Aston University. He tells Today Volkswagen's final bill for the emissions scandal could be anything between €20bn (£14.4bn) and €60bn. The question is “whether it is nearer €20bn or €60bn”.
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The emissions scandal has "all but killed off the diesel market in the US", he adds. Diesel was being marketed as a clean alternative to petrol, Professor Bailey says, but that’s now gone - and it is possible Volkswagen could pull out of the US market altogether.
Don’t expect too much pain for Volkswagen later today when it publishes its results - they're due out at 0800 UK time. The emissions scandal broke a few days after the end of its third quarter financial reporting period, thus the impact of the scandal won’t show in its results yet. But that doesn’t mean we won’t get any news at all.
Volkswagen has set aside €6bn (£4.3bn) to deal with the aftermath of the scandal. However, Professor David Bailey, of Aston Business School, tells Today that won't be enough to pay for the recall of the 11 million cars affected - let alone compensation for customers or regulatory fines.
The Competition and Markets Authority publishes its verdict on BT's takeover of mobile operator EE today. Independent telecoms analyst Chris Lewis tells Wake Up To Money that its competitors will want an even playing field so that a former monopoly operator like BT doesn’t have significant market power.
But he points out that regulators have a balancing act because the UK needs a strong telecoms infrastructure as well as ensuring choice and competition for customers. Mr Lewis thinks the CMA could impose some restrictions on the deal, but doesn’t think they should be too severe.
Volkswagen has quarterly results out today - but they are for the period before the emissions scandal erupted, so the numbers may not be as dire as the next quarter.
Peter Wells, of Cardiff University business school, tells Wake Up To Money that the company needs to find savings to help pay for the scandal, but that slashing the R&D budget could affect its long-term prospects.
He thinks VW has handled the crisis reasonably well, apart from some poor communication early on. Professor Wells' overall verdict? "VW still has a lot of work to do."