Volkswagen skids on report of DoJ fine

Volkswagen was under the cosh on Tuesday following a report that the US Justice Department is assessing how big a fine it can extract from the beleaguered German car maker without putting it out of business.

Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter as saying that the US government and VW were trying to reach a settlement by January before a new US administration comes into place.

It was not clear what penalty range the US is considering in the case of Volkswagen, which has already agreed to pay an industry-record $16.5bn in civil litigation fines in the US after it admitted last year that its diesel vehicles were fitted with emissions-cheating defeat devices.

At 1215 BST, VW shares were down 3.9% to €111.70.