"It's becoming tense once again," Diess told the FT. "You know it's a pity because we can't solve it from the car industry [alone]. It's more of a tariffs negotiation between Europe and the United States."

Analysts at London-based Evercore ISI said tariffs could cost Volkswagen 2.5 billion euros (2.2 billion pounds) a year, about 13 percent of expected earnings.

"In the worst-case situation, that would probably be close to the real figure," Diess said of the Evercore projection.

(Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by David Goodman)

Stocks treated in this article : Audi AG, Volkswagen