Automakers from the east to the west are paying a price for Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal as environmental regulators intensify their efforts to root out violations. Regulators are taking an extra-long look at new-vehicle emissions before giving their stamp of approval, a trend that could delay vehicle launches.
So far, only Volkswagen has been formally accused of deliberately manipulating emissions to fool lab tests. But top executives from more than half a dozen automakers say the scandal eroded the auto industry’s credibility in the eyes of European and U.S. environmental regulators.
“After the loss of the credibility between the industry altogether and the regulator, we see situations where the normal certification process which normally took four weeks all of the sudden takes three months, and you have to delay your launch for two months,” Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche spoke to reporters recently. “And I don’t think it’s a Mercedes experience; I think it’s a more general experience.”
