Skip to main content

German Prosecuters Take Aim at VW

Prosecutors in Germany say that the $15 billion Volkswagen is spending on its settlement agreement in the US will not be considered as they seek fines of their own in relation to the diesel emissions scandal, reports Automotive News.

“We cannot pay heed to what VW may have to pay in other countries when we go about setting the fine,” a spokesman for the Brunswick prosecutors office said today. “We cannot say: ‘VW is already requested to pay a lot in the US, so let’s not be so strict.’ That’s not possible.”

The announcement comes following popular discontent with the way that the heavily invested German government has dealt with the emissions scandal. Penalties in Europe have been relatively lenient as compared to the US settlement, which has led some prominent officials to say that European customers are being treated worse than their American counterparts.

Volkswagen Werk Wolfsburg

Matthias Muller stated last week that Volkswagen would not voluntarily give its European customers a payout like they did its American customers implying that to do so would be ruinously expensive.

To plan for the legal costs relating to the emissions scandal, VW set aside $18 billion dollars in its budget this year. The company said that the figure would be enough to cover the penalties and fines relating to the scandal, but after only one settlement in the US they have spent nearly all of that contingency fund.

Fortunately for VW, though, the remainder may still be enough to cover these German fines. The Brunswick prosecutors will specifically be investigating VW on the economic advantage it gained from the cheating software, and determining its fine based on that.

Industry observers estimate that the resultant fine could be in the hundreds of millions of euros range, reports Automotive News. VW’s remaining, roughly, $3 billion would be able to cover that. That said, VW still faces criminal probes in the US, Germany, and South Korea as well as from investors all over the world.

[source]

The post German Prosecuters Take Aim at VW appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/29KczeD
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Saying Goodbye to the CC V6

For all its size and its global reach, Volkswagen is still, in many ways, a deeply human company. There was, for instance, the Bugatti Veyron an ego project if ever there was one. Then the purchase of Ducati, a move most called folly. And then there was the Phaeton, the Volkswagen that most folks can’t afford. Not only were these moves all strange, I’m sure that they made VW’s accountants furious. None of them made good business sense, but they were all deeply interesting and they all are evidence of the heart that beats at the center of VW. Among these follies is the CC, a car that everyone agrees is rakishly handsome, but that no one really wanted to buy. The car couldn’t last, but the world is brighter for its having been in it. With the approach debut of the Arteon, it seems like a good time to look back on its sadly departing predecessor. The version I drove, because I live in Canada, is a V6 Wolfsburg Edition, which apparently isn’t available in the States. Nor is the V6, not as

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT

Mitsubishi admits it lied about MPG ratings for all vehicles in Japan

Filed under: Government/Legal , Green , Mitsubishi , Fuel Efficiency , Japan Mitsubishi says its shady fuel-economy test practices may have been used on all vehicles it sells and has sold in Japan. Continue reading Mitsubishi admits it lied about MPG ratings for all vehicles in Japan Mitsubishi admits it lied about MPG ratings for all vehicles in Japan originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 11 May 2016 12:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments from Autoblog Volkswagen http://ift.tt/21X3bHv