Rougher Ride On VW’s Road To Recovery

Volkswagen brand passenger car global sales fell nearly 5 percent in February, with a sharp 13 percent drop in the United States, as it continues to suffer the fallout from its emissions scandal. As David Pollard reports, the carmaker is also reportedly planning to shed thousands of office jobs at its Wolfsburg HQ.

Video Transcript:

It's a long and bumpy road to recovery.

But one easier to travel, perhaps, with fewer passengers on board.

It's been a week of negative news for VW, including reports it could be shedding 3,000 office jobs at its HQ in Germany.

Those reports coming just days after top union chiefs warned that US fines will mean redundancies.

The U.S. Justice department is suing for up to $46 billion over the dieselgate scandal.

There's still no fix for nearly 700,000 cars affected there.

Jane Foley, Senior FX strategist, Rabobank:

"Clearly, it's still impacting the VW brand, jobs at that factory right now. A lot of the cars that delivered up to a few months ago were orders placed before the scandal broke. So in the next few months we'll get a fuller understanding of the impact on the company itself."

But there's little cheer either for the carmaker in its latest figures.

Its own brand passenger car sales fell 4.7 percent in February. That compares to a rise of nearly 8 per cent for BMW.

VW sales in Europe were actually up, but elsewhere they suffered, with US sales down 13 percent.

Those numbers coming a little over a day after VW revealed its US chief, Michael Horn, was stepping down with immediate effect.