German politicians and business leaders are increasingly worried about the long-term impact of the domestic carmakers’ emissions-cheating scam. Dieselgate doesn’t look like it’s going to die down anytime soon.
A growing number of German policymakers and representatives of business organizations fear the country’s ongoing Dieselgate scandal will have a lasting negative impact on Germany as a business location.
“The emissions-cheating scandal and the ensuing or looming bans of diesel cars in some cities are creating a lot of uncertainty among German businesses,” the president of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Eric Schweitzer, told the Rheinische Post newspaper on Tuesday.
Schweitzer said it would be wrong to believe that the scandal had only hit carmakers. “The drop in the value of diesels has also affected many small and medium-sized companies across the nation,” he pointed out, with many firms not being able to use their fleets during recalls and necessary software updates.
Growing collateral damage
DIHK officials estimated that SMEs had already incurred losses of over half a million euros ($590,000) as a result of Dieselgate.
In addition, many suppliers see their revenues going down further as the number of new diesel car registrations drops rapidly.
Schweitzer warned the nationwide impact of the emissions-cheating scam had to be taken more seriously. “The whole scope of the scandal needs to be cleared up, just as much as citizens’ right to cleaner air in cities needs to be respected,” he said.
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