Black Thursday for cars. In particular for FCA and Renault: the two groups are accused respectively of manipulating the monthly reports on car sales in the US and of having manipulated the data on emissions, the same accusation leveled a few months ago at Volkswagen. The French house, which in the meantime has denied everything, has also undergone searches by the authorities in its factories.
The groups reject the accusations but the repercussions on the markets have certainly been there: around 16 pm FCA loses 6,66% in Piazza Affari, at 6,93 euros per share, after having also touched 6,6 euros; even worse it went to Renault which on the Paris Stock Exchange in the morning collapsed by more than 20% to an intraday low at 67,03 euros, following confirmation by the CGT union that the French carmaker's offices were raided last week as part of a fraud investigation.
Renault explained that the checks made are part of the analyzes requested by the French Ministry of the Environment following the story of the tests rigged by Volskwagen. But he specified that in the engines of Renault diesel cars examined by French law enforcement agencies no fraudulent software was found which makes it possible to circumvent the texts on emissions, such as those found, however, on Volkswagen cars.
The Italian-American group has instead ended up in the crosshairs of Napleston Automotive Group, which has taken legal action through which it has stigmatized the behavior of FCA which, in his opinion, allegedly conspired with some dealers to inflate the monthly reports on car sales in the United States. In particular, according to the indictment, the dealers were paid to report false sales on the last day of the month and then reverse them the following month and the auto group officials were aware of these false reports. An absolutely regular practice in Europe but which is not allowed in the States. The same Chief Executive Officer of FCA Sergio Marchionne, this week at the Detriot show he remarked la long series positive monthly sales (69), the longer of any other car manufacturer.
As for the allegations, FCA makes it known that it has not yet received the exact objections and that it will respond only when it has read the findings addressed to it.
