Germany Makes Last-Ditch Effort to Rescue Diesel at Summit

After nearly two years of constant crisis, the German car industry is looking to salvage its beleaguered diesel technology and draw a line under an emissions scandal that shows no signs of abating.

At an emergency summit in Berlin called by the government, the chief executives of Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and BMW AG will face off with ministers and state leaders to convince them that, despite the steady drumbeat of negative news, diesel has a future. In return for political support to avoid driving bans, automakers are willing to further upgrade existing vehicles to lower their pollution.

There‘s a lot at stake for all sides. German automakers need diesel as a stop-gap technology to buy time to catch up with the electric offerings of Tesla Inc. and Nissan Motor Co. And with less than two months until a federal election, Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose ruling bloc runs the ministry overseeing carmakers, has to ward off criticism that the government is too lenient on carmakers while also not endangering the country‘s 800,000 industry jobs.