In a recent interview with a German newspaper, Continental CEO Elmar Degenhart stated that the VW emissions cheating scandal could lead to the end of the diesel vehicle market in North America, China, and Japan. He added that in these three regions the market share of diesel-powered vehicles are only 1-3%, which is significantly lower than in Europe where it’s 53%. Asked what he would do to keep shareholders happy, Degenhart said he did not rule out raising Continental’s dividend payout ratio in coming years from 15-30 percent of net profit currently. Degenhart said Continental had not supplied any software to manipulate emissions tests to any of its clients, stating "We developed and supplied the engine controllers in line with VW's specifications. The installation and tuning of the software, the so-called calibration, was done by VW," he said. Volkswagen has been under fire for months over how it handled the scandal.
In a recent interview with a German newspaper, Continental CEO Elmar Degenhart stated that the VW emissions cheating scandal could lead to the end of the diesel vehicle market in North America, China, and Japan. He added that in these three regions the market share of diesel-powered vehicles are only 1-3%, which is significantly lower than in Europe where it’s 53%. Degenhart said Continental had not supplied any software to manipulate emissions tests to any of its clients, stating "We developed and supplied the engine controllers in line with VW's specifications. The installation and tuning of the software, the so-called calibration, was done by VW," he said. Volkswagen has been under fire for months over how it handled the scandal.