Professor Edgar Morgenroth:

What we are finding currently - it is something one can read about - is Volkswagen has hired very large areas in Texas that are full of cars it either cannot sell or had to take back. I think it is 300,000 vehicles; it is not a small number. It is having a very serious impact in the US. They were always a little bit more sceptical about diesel. Fuel prices in the US are much lower than here and consequently there are much bigger engines. There is more of a market for petrol vehicles anyway. I do not think this will have helped diesel at all. It has not had the same sort of effect in Ireland as it would have had in Germany, which is much closer. It really is quite dramatic but that is because they are talking about banning cars. If one is living in a city that is going to ban the car one owns, it is a real conundrum for people. It is quite a different measure from facing slightly increased excise tax. It is a really significant issue.