The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal and Ifo Business Surveys

At the beginning of September the US environmental authorities discovered a prohibited manipulation of motor management software in Volkswagen diesel vehicles. The aim was to keep the emission values artificially low in test drive situations in order to comply with environmental standards. Overall, the results of the Ifo Business Survey do not show that the emissions scandal has had any negative effect on the automotive branch as a whole. The situation remains the same both for the automotive branch collectively, and for vehicle manufacturers and suppliers respectively. However, the aggregated results do not show whether and how a Volkswagen substitution effect has impacted other manufacturers.