BERLIN, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Continental expects no major price pressures to emerge from the costs German carmakers are facing to overhaul diesel engine software and offer scrapping incentives, its finance chief said.
German politicians and car executives agreed on Wednesday to update the engine software on 5.3 million diesel cars to cut pollution, with the VDA auto industry lobby estimating the measures to cost more than 1 billion euros ($1.18 billion).
“We always have price pressures in our industry,” Continental finance chief Wolfgang Schaefer told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
“We expect no particular changes this year from what we are used to,” he said when asked whether he expected carmakers to raise prices in the wake of the diesel agreement.
Continental, which makes driver-assistance technology, fuel-injection systems and vehicle tyres, has had a “reasonable” start into the third quarter, the CFO said, even as the company braces for world car production to slow in the second half of the year.
$1 = 0.8447 euros Reporting by Andreas Cremer and Ilona Wissenbach; Editing by Maria Sheahan
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