Statements from the boards of directors of automakers are generally dry, dispassionate, and formal. So the language of a terse item issued yesterday by the board of Volkswagen Group was remarkable in its directness. Not to mention its inferences about the company's former CEO Ferdinand Piech, who remains a powerful and major shareholder. DON'T... VW Board vs ex-CEO Piech: rancor erupts over diesel cheating lies
Statements from the boards of directors of automakers are generally dry, dispassionate, and formal. So the language of a terse item issued yesterday by the board of Volkswagen Group was remarkable in its directness. Not to mention its inferences about the company's former CEO Ferdinand Piech, who remains a powerful and major shareholder. DON'T...
Last week, Volkswagen settled an array of criminal and civil charges over its 16-month-old diesel scandal with the U.S. Justice Department. The news of the settlement was quickly swamped by a variety of further stories, both on the regulatory and diesel fronts. Those included the arrest of one Volkswagen executive, and the issuance of warrants for...
On Wednesday, six senior VW Group executives were indicted by the Justice Department on multiple counts of conspiracy and intent to defraud. The charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States, to defraud customers, and to violate the Clean Air Act. All stemmed from the Volkswagen diesel scandal that erupted in September 2015. Over the...
The head of VW Group's U.S. regulatory compliance group was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation this weekend on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Oliver Schmidt led the German automaker's regulatory compliance during 2014 and the early part of 2015. The Volkswagen diesel emission scandal erupted in September 2015 when...
A settlement for Volkswagen 2.0-liter diesel cars with "defeat device" software was approved at the end of October, and the process of offering buybacks to affected owners is now underway. Owners can sell their cars back to VW Group for a predetermined amount, or choose to wait for possible modifications to be approved that would allow the cars to...
It takes people to make cars: to lift and install parts, check quality, test-drive them after assembly, and so forth. Automation has eliminated many of the jobs performed by humans a century ago on the Ford Model T line, and made the rest much less physically punishing for line workers. But electric cars pose a new threat: they will require even...
The point at which electric cars will become truly cost competitive with internal-combustion cars is a subject of vigorous discussion by advocates and skeptics alike. But could tougher emissions standards help push the cost of electric and internal-combustion powertrains toward convergence? Even if the cost of electric cars doesn't drop...
It's been 15 months since news broke that VW Group had used "defeat device" software in its diesel cars and SUVs that let them emit far more than permitted levels of nitrogen oxides in real-world use. Even now, however, the Volkswagen diesel scandal continues to grow new tentacles as investigators uncover additional apparent instances of...
Many governments across the globe have enacted stricter emissions standards to curb air pollution and greenhouse gases; others plan to do so. Some have also drafted incentives and other policies to promote zero-emission vehicles, especially electric cars, to encourage the market and help achieve these emissions reductions. Germany's government...
As it works toward moving past its diesel-emissions scandal, the Volkswagen Group is making ambitious plans for electric cars. By 2025, the company hopes to be selling 1 million electric cars per year, and it has said it will launch 30 different electric models across multiple brands in the coming years. Now VW says some of those cars may be built...
As the Volkswagen diesel scandal lumbers onwards, German media outlets have often broken the latest news and revelations from deep inside VW Group. While the German auto giant had hoped at first to have the issue largely wrapped up by now, the scandal first publicly revealed in September 2015 shows no signs of abating. The updates to...
The Volkswagen diesel settlement approved by a federal judge earlier this week does not address all of the company's cars fitted with illegal "defeat device" software. It covers only VW and Audi TDI models with 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engines, sold in the U.S. from model years 2009 through 2015. It's good news for the 475,000 owners of those...
As any experienced journalist knows, you hear lots of good stuff in the corridors and private conversations of any large industry event where media are present. That applies to auto shows too. Which is how we came to hear an intriguing rumor about the possible production direction of the next-generation Volkswagen Beetle. DON'T MISS: VW ID: more...