Volkswagen Defends Information Distribution on Diesel Scandal
- Carmaker believed number of affected cars would be limited
- VW says previous U.S. case suggested little stock reaction
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Volkswagen AG sought to defuse allegations that it was too slow to inform the public about the investigations into rigged diesel engines, saying it initially believed the scandal could be contained and that proposed measures wouldn’t affect its stock performance.
The German carmaker first disclosed the probe by U.S. authorities on Sept. 18. At that point, Volkswagen had only identified about 500,000 cars that were affected, and believed the issue could be “contained by measures that were common in such cases,” and thus appeared to be neutral in regard to the company stock price, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said in a statement Wednesday.