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When it comes to its diesel emissions scandal, Volkswagen finds more bad news and a new bottom every calendar month. The nearly current: VW group chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch is existence associated directly with the state of affairs from his days earlier this decade equally VW'due south CFO. High german prosecutors now say they have plenty evidence to declare Poetsch as a third suspect in the was-VW-quick-enough-to-tell-the-market flap.

And there'south more mixed news: Both German language and The states publications say in that location may be Audis running around the US with unauthorized software that reports Audi diesel and gasoline vehicles are compliant with CO2 emissions standards (when they're not). Audi is a Volkswagen Group subsidiary.

2016 IMPA Test Days, Monticello (NY Motor Club, October 2022 (photo Bill Howard bill@billhoward.com)

Market manipulation?

At that place are two Volkswagen story lines agile. One is what happens to the half-one thousand thousand VW owners here, and more abroad, who have diesel fuel VWs (also Audis and Porsches): Will their cars exist fixed and how soon, and will VW'south payments cover the lost value and hassles of going to and from the dealer. The big story this week is who knew how much almost VW coming clean in a timely mode. Investigators are investigating whether VW was deadening to tell all it knew, perhaps out of fear of causing even more damage to VW's stock toll.

Monday, German prosecutors confirmed they are investigating current supervisory board chairman Poetsch. A day earlier, a VW statement had said the probe at present included Poetsch, likewise as (appear back in June) one-time CEO Martin Winterkorn, all in connectedness with Volkswagen 2022 news and fiscal statements, specifically: Did VW delay the news to keep the stock cost propped a little while longer.

On the 1 paw, the news was going to come out sooner or later. On the other, investors who bought VW stock without knowing more about VW'southward situation might be annoyed (read: potentially litigious). Plus, companies are supposed to written report, right away, news that affects investors and regulators. In 2022, Poetsch was VW Group's CFO, meaning someone involved in compiling information that would touch VW and VW investors. The New York Times reported his potential transgression is "failing to notify shareholders apace enough of the fiscal risks of the diesel emissions cheating scandal," thus violating securities laws.

Poetsch has been at VW since 2003; previously he was at parts supplier Duerr AG and at BMW AG (as controller). He had a reputation for being calmer and more in the background than some other VW executives, which may have helped him become CEO. Co-ordinate to Automotive News, "I of the last survivors of an inner circle that included Winterkorn and old Chairman Ferdinand Piech, Poetsch was seen every bit a safe bet to guide the company through turbulent times given his skills every bit a backside-the-scenes conciliator."

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Possible issues with iii-liter V6 cars

VW's main trouble is with its ii.0-liter diesel fuel engines, 475,000 in the United states lone. VW acknowledges they're programmed to bypass emissions controls except when the engine figurer believes the car is being emissions-tested. In the US, VW and the government take agreed on fixes and penalties: $10 billion to repair and/or back the vehicles plus payments for lost value, and $5 billion in fines or mitigation payments. Some 800,000 vehicles in Europe are afflicted, also.

A similar problem exists with V6 diesels used in Audis, Porsches and VWs. In that location are separate negotiations on possibles repairs or buyback. A federal district approximate gave VW until November xxx to come up with a plan to repair or buy back some 80,000 affected vehicles.

The newest news involves reports that Audi vehicles are running software that allows carbon dioxide emissions to be higher than immune limits except when the auto is being tested for emissions. What'due south worse is that the software defeat routine may be installed on gasoline equally well as diesel Audis.

The Wall Street reported that technicians at the California Air Resources Lath (CARB) were able to get an Audi on a test bed to misbehave — run at a high emissions level — simply past turning the steering wheel back and forth, making the car believe it was on the open up road. Reportedly the defeat device was in Audis fabricated through May 2022, some nine months after the four-cylinder emissions tricks surfaced.

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2017 VW Atlas SUV

Where VW Group and owners stand now

VW Group stock is lagging. The company is on the claw, from the diesel scandals, for payouts amounting to at least a quarter of the company's internet piece of work (marketplace cap). Dealers are unhappy that they take unsold cars on their lots and uncertainty what they can do with them, since they can't exist sold until they're fixed. Owners are cranky considering their cars accept reduced resale value.

On the other hand, VW is forging ahead with new models, particularly the United states-axial Atlas, a 3-row SUV nigh the size of the best-selling Ford Explorer. VW has a cadre of loyalists who like that Volkswagens handle similar low-cost BMWs. Cranky as VW diesel fuel owners are, they'll probably come up out ahead: They'll go their cars stock-still (eventually) and they'll become a nice "restitution" payout for the inconvenience: $5,100-$ix,800. They can have Volkswagen buy their cars back for the blueish volume value of the auto in the month earlier the emissions scandal went public. If they already sold their cars privately, seller and buyer split the oops-distressing payouts. The only owners who won't be satisfied are the ones who wish they got back the original purchase cost. That won't happen.

Some older VW TDI cars tin can't be fixed and VW won't offer to fix them. Those owners will have to have the buyout although they can wait a year or and so; the cars won't be taken away from them. People who leased can turn the cars in at any fourth dimension with no penalty.

Meanwhile, those with diesel VWs still on the road are looking at loftier mpg, affordable long range driving. Some VWs volition travel 700 miles on a single tank of diesel fuel. They just won't go out the air as make clean every bit it should exist.