Volkswagen's diesel emissions scandal has pushed the German car giant into the first quarterly loss for more than 15 years. As a result, the profit for 2015 will be significantly lower than in the previous year. In three months ended September the operating loss came in at €3.48 billion compared with €3.23 billion recorded in the same period last year. This figure exceeded economists' expectations who forecasted the loss of €3.27 billion. The company set aside €6.7 billion in the July-September period to cover costs related to the diesel scandal, up from the €6.5 billion announced earlier. In addition, the number of recalls increased to 3 percent from 2.8 percent a year ago. Volkswagen scandal is likely not just to hurt the company's reputation, but also cause damage to market capitalization, which plunged by €21 billion. This high-profile case made the American branch halt sales of such popular diesel-powered cars, as Audi А3 2.0-liter TDI, Golf, Passat, Jetta, and Beetle. In addition, the US government has delivered an ultimatum to the company and asked Volkswagen to withdraw nearly half a million cars sold between 2008 and 2015 in the US. VW's management board admitted that about 11 million of its vehicles around the world were equipped with the emissions' cheating software. Despite this fact, Volkswagen's stock price increased by 1.2 percent.
