Volkswagen posts $1.83 billion quarterly loss

BERLIN — Volkswagen reported a $1.83 billion third-quarter loss Wednesday as the German car maker continued to weather the disclosure that it inserted software on 11 million vehicles worldwide that allowed its cars to cheat on their emissions tests.

The large loss came as the company set aside $7.4 billion to pay for recalls and fixing cars.

But VW's group revenue rose 8.5% to $177 billion compared to the previous nine months and it said annual sales would be similar to last year's record.

In 2014, VW sold over 10 million cars. The boost in sales revenue was helped by a favorable exchange rate, it said.

VW's shares traded about 2% higher in Europe.

VW has delivered 7,430,794 vehicles in 2015 so far compared to 7,541,787 over the same January to September period in 2014, a decline of 1.5%.

The Wolfsburg-based company has delivered 6,980,066 passenger cars compared to 7,075, 089 over the same period.

Appearing at the Tokyo auto show earlier Wednesday, Herbert Diess, VW's new chief executive of passenger cars, apologized for the emissions-cheating scandal and vowed it would never happen again.

“We are doing everything we can to bring back this trust in our brand,” Diess said.

In the U.S., VW has admitted to rigging its 2-liter diesel engines that are used in its smaller vehicles and in the diesel version of the Audi A3.

Volkswagen will report its October sales next week, its first full month since the scandal broke.

But in September, the crisis already seemed to have been taking its toll. In the U.S., sales rose 1% in September compared to the same month last year, far less than the 16% rise for the auto industry as a whole, Autodata reports.

Woodyard reported from Los Angeles