Volkswagen’s shares have plummeted more than 18% in Germany as the company suffers the fallout from its diesel emissions scandal in the United States.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency Volkswagen and Audi are in breach of California’s Clean Air Act after the manufacturers created software to deliberately cheat emissions testing. As a result, the EPA claims four-cylinder diesel powered models built between 2009–15 emit as much as 40 times more nitrogen oxides (NOx) than tests showed.
Over 480,000 vehicles are affected and Volkswagen could face penalties of up to US$18 billion, with fines of US$37,500 per vehicle in breach of the relevant laws.
“Using a defeat device in cars to evade clean air standards is illegal and a threat to public health,” said Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Working closely with the California Air Resources Board, EPA is committed to making sure that all automakers play by the same rules. EPA will continue to investigate these very serious matters.”
For its part Volkswagen is preparing to take its medicine with Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen AG CEO, issuing a statement apologising for the breaches.
“I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public,” Winterkorn said. “We will cooperate fully with the responsible agencies, with transparency and urgency, to clearly, openly, and completely establish all of the facts of this case.
“We do not and will not tolerate violations of any kind of our internal rules or of the law,” Winterkorn added. “The trust of our customers and the public is and continues to be our most important asset.”
Affected diesel-powered models include:
- Audi A3 (Model Years 2009–2015)
- Beetle (Model Years 2009–2015)
- Golf (Model Years 2009–2015)
- Jetta (Model Years 2009–2015)
- Passat (Model Years 2009–2015)
Wolfsburg, 20 September 2015
Statement of Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen AG:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board (EPA and CARB) revealed their findings that while testing diesel cars of the Volkswagen Group they have detected manipulations that violate American environmental standards.
The Board of Management at Volkswagen AG takes these findings very seriously.
I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public. We will cooperate fully with the responsible agencies, with transparency and urgency, to clearly, openly, and completely establish all of the facts of this case.
Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation of this matter.
We do not and will not tolerate violations of any kind of our internal rules or of the law.
The trust of our customers and the public is and continues to be our most important asset. We at Volkswagen will do everything that must be done in order to re-establish the trust that so many people have placed in us, and we will do everything necessary in order to reverse the damage this has caused. This matter has first priority for me, personally, and for our entire Board of Management.
5 replies on “Volkswagen shares go up in smoke”
I’d like to know how many people inside VW knew about this and who authorised it in the first place?
Maybe VW Group can achieve compliance with US EPA standards through new software but one might expect that this would be at the cost of performance; if it is through addition of urea injection / exhaust after treatment then there will be considerable cost developing and installing retrofit kits, and in compensating customers for additional servicing costs…
US $18b EPA fine + 480,000 litigious US customers upset because their 2.0 TDI does not in fact output 110kW (as example) if it is to comply with EPA standards and or because their servicing costs increase, and that is only one market/region.
I imagine that European regulators and customers will be watching this very closely.
Apparently the cars have urea injection, but detect when they are being tested and increase the amount injected. Euro NOx standards are apparently less stringent than California. Euro6 could change this. I could be mistaken, but I think the only diesel golf you can get in Australia is the highline.
I bet there are several other very nervous manufacturers watching these developments very closely.
Update:
11 million vehicles worldwide. OMFG.
“As you might expect, Volkswagen is now responding to the worldwide reporting of this story with confirmation it “plans to set aside a provision of some 6.5 billion EUR … in the profit and loss statement in the third quarter of the current financial year. Earnings targets for the Group for 2015 will be adjusted accordingly.” Whether this includes fines from the EPA or not is not stated.
VW has gone further in its admissions too, saying, “discrepancies relate to vehicles with Type EA 189 engines, involving some eleven million vehicles worldwide. A noticeable deviation between bench test results and actual road use was established solely for this type of engine. Volkswagen is working intensely to eliminate these deviations through technical measures.” Not quite a full mea culpa that this was deliberately engineered into the engine as alleged, but it goes further than Winterkorn’s original statement”
http://www.pistonheads.com/news/general/vw-in-a-spot-of-bother-update/32943