Auto giant Volkswagen searched today for a new chief to steer it out of a global pollution cheating storm, as suspicions over diesel car emissions spread for the first time to fellow German manufacturer BMW.
Shares in top-of-the-range automaker BMW skidded nearly 10 per cent at one point after the weekly Auto Bild reported that emissions from one of its diesel models were 11 times higher than European Union norms.
But BMW said it had not cheated in pollution tests, as VW has admitted to doing.
"The BMW group does not manipulate or rig any emissions tests. We observe the legal requirements in each country and adhere to all local testing requirements," it said in a statement.
"We are not familiar with the test mentioned by Auto Bild concerning the emissions of a BMW X3 during a road test. No specific details of the test have yet been provided and therefore we cannot explain these results," it said.
The test on BMW's X3 xDrive was carried out by the International Council on Clean Transportation, which had been at the origin of revelations of emissions cheating by Volkswagen.
After initially plunging 9.7 per cent on the report, BMW shares were showing a loss of 6.8 per cent by mid-afternoon.
Germany's powerful car industry has been reeling over the revelations that Volkswagen fitted up to 11 million of its diesel cars with devices capable of fooling emissions tests.
The scandal, which emerged last Friday when US officials publicly accused the company of cheating and launched a probe, has now gone global with French and South Korean authorities also announcing investigations.
The biggest bank in the Nordic region, Nordea, said it was barring its traders from buying Volkswagen shares and bonds for six months over the emissions scandal.
"We are sending a clear message that this is unacceptable," Sasja Beslik, head of responsible investments at Stockholm-based Nordea, told AFP.
"We believe this action, or lack of action, from the management is outrageous. It's poor judgement in terms of business, but it's also very costly from a financial point of view," he said.
Investors had dumped Volkswagen shares on Monday and Tuesday, sending it into 35-per cent meltdown and wiping 25 billion euros (USD 28 billion) off the company's market.
