AKIPRESS.COM - 
Volkswagen posted its first quarterly loss in at least 15 years on Wednesday and said the 6.7 billion euros ($7.4 billion) set aside to cover the costs of its rigging of diesel emissions tests was likely just a start.
The news came as the carmaker's new CEO was about to fly out to China with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other business leaders to promote trade in a major export market and try to limit the damage of a scandal that has rocked the auto industry, reports BBC.
Almost six weeks after it admitted using illegal software to cheat U.S. diesel emissions tests, Europe's biggest carmaker is under pressure to identify those responsible, fix up to 11 million affected vehicles and convince regulators, investors and customers that it won't make the same mistakes again.
The biggest business crisis in its 78-year history has wiped more than a quarter off VW's stock market value, forced out its long-time CEO and tarnished a business held up for generations as a model of German engineering prowess.
VW reported on Wednesday a third-quarter operating loss of 3.48 billion euros, in line with the 3.47 billion-euro loss forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts.
It set aside 6.7 billion euros in the July-September period to cover costs related to the scandal, up from the 6.5 billion announced a week after the cheating became public on Sept. 18.
As a result, the German group said it now expected its operating profit to drop "significantly below" last year's record 12.7 billion euros, even though its auto sales are seen matching last year's record 10.14 million deliveries.
The costs so far are largely related to the refitting of affected vehicles, and CEO Matthias Mueller has said they are likely to rise because the company is not yet in a position to estimate its potential liabilities from lawsuits.
"It is currently impossible to assess the legal risks connected with the diesel issue due to the early stage of the comprehensive and exhaustive investigations, the complexity of the individual factors and the large number of open questions," the company said in its quarterly report.