i spoke to the ceo herbert diess and started by asking if this year, profitability will rise again. ot an easy year. outlookthe same probably for this year to keep profitability at this level. it will be even harder this year. difficults are really the first two months. also, we are optimistic because there will be a settlement between the united states and china. brexit, they will be clear what will happen. i think this could be a good year and we are investing a lot in new technology, so keeping profitability would be an achievement. matt: how important is it for you to get a good brexit deal and how optimistic are you it can happen? herbert: brexit is important for us. the u.k. is an important market. bentley is depending on export from the island so this is a critical situation for us. many luxury brands, sporty brands have a big market share in the u.k. volkswagen is important in the u.k.. orontrollable brexit, introducedcision is would be very important to stabilize our brexit. matt: can you quantify that and tell us what you expect? herbert: we have different scenarios. it is

matt: i'm here with herbert diess, the ceo of volkswagen.are standing here in front of this buggy. is the concept for volkswagen but also a new business model. fast in we are really getting up to -- already 60 million cars. this new technology, the drivetrains will be quite similar. the differentiation between the drivetrains will be much more limited. one in the back, one in the front, you had to switch sides, battery in-between, so two motors. so it does make sense to share this technology to make it more affordable and to a better car. we are now really making good progress. i think it just makes sense to offer this to third parties. get our margin there and make electrics really come through. revenuesis also a new -- revenue stream. carmakers are experimenting with new ways to bring in money. you are going to need it because you are investing 50 million -- 50 million euros. how much can you bring in with new revenue streams? herbert: too early to chart. for the foreseeable future, cars will be our main source of income. the cars will cha

at the geneva motor show, theo leggett asked volkswagen's ceo, herbert diess, how he hopes to persuaders. the market segment is growing, it is nearly double in china last year. china is the market we are really big in market in china. we also are regaining scale in china for being very competitive worldwide. this gives us let's say a boost, acceleration, and what our anticipation towards 2020 is that the cars will become much more attractive, and for many potential customers, it would be very hard to decide against an electric power. the running costs is probably half that of a normal car, acceleration is just fantastic. it is really smooth so you have big interiors, it is an exciting looking car. it will be very difficult to decide against an electric car if you are not driving 500 kilometres a day or 30,000 kilometres a year. not because steel at diesel gasoline car would still do right option. because steel at diesel gasoline car would still do right optionm because steel at diesel gasoline car would still do right option. it is ongoing, still a headache for you, but a couple of wee

shery: herbert diess speaking to matt miller.her -- add another to the pile of negative surprises for the global economy. u.s. inflation fated in february, supporting the case for the fed's rate hike cause.we have two more reports in asia coming up. south korea and japan expected to show weakness. kathleen hays is here. is this u.s. inflation weakness that we are seeing a continued trend or a one-off? kathleen: that is what we have to wait and see because of you look at the numbers that came out today -- not a big drop you consider holding steady, the main numbers in the consumer price index actually eased back a bit. on the headline number, 1.5% year-over-year in february from 1.6% in january. food and energy fell to 2.1% in february. jump in the bloomberg and look at a chart that shows you some perspective because true pressure has been building on the inflation numbers, strictly as oil prices rise. as the oil falls, you have the headline coming down. that is not so concerning. the core may be easing back of it because it is no

herbert diess used the line "ebit macht frei" at a company event on tuesday.chwitz concentration camp. ebit is a commonly used acronym for "earnings before interest and taxes". in a statement, mr diess said he was sorry for what he described as "definitely an unfortunate choice of words". he explained that he was referring to the freedom afforded to vw brands in strong financial health, in other news... facebook appears to be recovering from a more than 14—hour disruption to all of its products that left them mostly inaccessible across the world. the company's main social network, its two messaging apps and image—sharing site instagram were all affected. facebook has yet to offer an explanation for the outage. the last time facebook had a disruption of this magnitude was in 2008, when the site had 150 million users — compared with around 2.3 billion monthly users today. let's talk to dr stephanie hare, independent technology researcher. this has caused major disruption, hasn't it? not just for this has caused major disruption, hasn't it? notjust for individual