Volkswagen emissions scandal: Switzerland bans sales of VW Euro5 diesel models
The backlash against Volkswagen has hit its hardest point yet as Switzerland has banned sales of Volkswagen diesel cars after the company admitted to cheating in emissions tests.
The emissions cheating scandal has escalated over the week as the German car maker admitted that as many as 11m cars could have been equipped with a device enabling them to cheat emissions tests in the US and Germany.
In what is the most severe response yet, Switzerland has moved to ban Euro5 Volkswagen diesel cars, which is the category containing the majority of the affected cars. Drivers who already own this model won’t be affected by the ban but it’s been estimated some 180,000 cars yet to be sold will be.
Read more: Reduced emissions come at a price
Switzerland may be the first country to ban the models, but it may not be the last. The scandal has pushed countries around the world, including the UK, to begin investigating diesel emisisons.
Volkswagen has seen billions wiped off the company’s valuation as shares tumbled 30 per cent over the course of one week, and the scandal has already claimed one scalp as Martin Winterkorn was forced to step aside as chief executive to be replaced by Porsche’s Matthias Muller.
Deutsche Bank has predicted that the effects of the scandal will be so severe and longlasting to the company that it has cut its forecast for the entire Dax for both 2015 and 2016, expecting the German index to end the year at 10,300, 1,000 points lower than previously predicted.