Volkswagen has already announced a January start and late-2016 finish as targets to begin and end its massive recall to bring 11 million faulty diesel vehicles to comply with emissions regulations — as a fallout from its treacherous emissions scandal.
Well, Bloomberg, among other media outlets, is reporting that the automaker will reveal initial findings of its internal investigation into its emissions cheating during a press conference Thursday. This follows Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller's visit to Qatar, the company's third-largest shareholder, last weekend.
"We believe Thursday will provide the first significant watershed," Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst with Evercore ISI, told Bloomberg.
He adds that he expects greater transparency from the embattled automaker, as it continues to try to make it out of the trudge in what has been the worst crisis of its 78-year history.
The latest projections, according to Bloomberg, is that it will cost VW a whopping $9.4 billion in recall costs and damages from the scandal — and that's strictly the estimate for repairing cars, whether by updating their manipulated software or providing new parts.
That projection doesn't include possible regulatory fines from countries or class-action lawsuits from drivers affected by the emissions cheating scandal.
Late last month, VW submitted its plan to fix four-cylinder diesel vehicles affected by its emissions manipulation in Europe, but has yet to formally do so with plans for cars affected in the United States.
Audi and Porsche — which fall under VW, their parent company — also have vehicles affected by the scandal.
It will be intriguing and rather telling to see how much detail Volkswagen provides Thursday.
