Mounting costs of emissions scandal push VW into loss

Volkswagen has been pushed into loss by the mounting cost of its emissions scandal.

The first set of accounts published by VW since the scandal broke show it put aside €6.7 billion.

As a result, VW reported a €3.48 billion operating loss for the third quarter of the year, and a €2.52bn pre-tax loss.

In September, VW admitted installing software designed to cheat emissions tests in 11 million of its diesel cars worldwide.

The chief executive and chairman of the Board of Management, Matthias Müller, said: "The figures show the core strength of the Volkswagen Group on the one hand, while on the other the initial impact of the current situation is becoming clear. We will do everything in our power to win back the trust we have lost."

VW said it expects profits for the full year to be "down significantly" as a result of the costs of dealing with the emissions scandal, but it said that it is still forecasting a rise of up to 4% in sales revenue.

Meanwhile the group has started retrenching and announced earlier this month it would reduce its research and development budget. In the last three months it has reduced R&D by over €1 billion.

Volkswagen shares rose 3.2% on the results, and were the best performing stock on the German Dax 30 index in the first hour of trade