Volkswagen has said that uncertainty over tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump in the United States was one of the reasons for its operating results falling to 2.8 billion euro ($3.07 billion), from 4.6 billion dollars, last year.

The results of Europe's biggest carmaker fell far short of the market expectations of 4 billion euros.

As a result, the automaker has stopped rail shipments from Mexico and is holding cars from Europe.

The company's full-year forecast included a sales growth of up to 5%, and an operating return of sales between 5,5% and 5,6%. However, the results statement stated that this did not include any possible tariff impact as it was still too early to determine their impact.

Trump's announcement on Wednesday night of a 90 day pause in some tariffs is still unclear.

The company reported that the adjustments to the provisions for diesel and the valuations of vehicles in transit due to U.S. Tariffs removed 300 million euros from its operating result.

The cost of the provisions for Europe's CO2 regulations is 600 million Euros. However, this cost could be reduced once new EU regulations have been finalised. The restructuring of VW's Software Unit cost an additional 200 million Euros.

The sales of the groups rose by around 3%, to 78 billion euro. (1 dollar = 0.9127 euros) (Reporting and editing by David Gregorio, Matthew Lewis, and Thomas Escritt)

(source: Reuters)