Germany's Transportation Chief Wants To Retest Every Volkswagen Now
German authorities said Wednesday that they would retest all Volkswagen cars — regardless of engine type or brand — for emissions compliance, Reuters reported.
German transportation minister Alexander Dobrindt expressed his “irritation” with the automaker that more cars were being added to the deepening scandal. On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency notified the automaker that some of its 3-liter diesel models may contain an illegal “defeat device” to fool emissions tests.
Volkswagen denied the allegations by the EPA that its 3-liter diesel models contained illegal software. On Wednesday, Audi and Porsche issued stop sales for their cars that contained the engine. As of Wednesday afternoon, Volkswagen hadn’t yet pulled the Touareg TDI — which the EPA alleged polluted up to nine times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides — from its online configurator.
The growing list of cars affected by Volkswagen’s massive emissions scandal is brutally punishing the company’s balance sheet. The company’s stock sank 10 percent Wednesday on the latest news. Volkswagen’s stock has erased roughly 60 percent of its value since its 1-year high in March.
When the company announced Monday that 800,000 additional cars may pollute more carbon dioxide than the automaker admitted, Volkswagen said that could cost them $2.1 billion alone. So far, the company has set aside more than $7 billion to pay for its diesel scandal, but analysts suggest that will be far from enough to pay for the flap.
“These new claims pose further challenges to Volkswagen’s financial flexibility and competitive position, and heighten Moody’s concerns about Volkswagen’s internal control and governance issues, thus further weakening its rating profile,” Yasmina Serghini, Moody’s lead analyst for VW, told Reuters.
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Say what your u want about GM, they handled things a lot better. VAG needs to come clean or they are sunk.
I'm surprised at the depth of the past deception. I worked for an alternate German automaker for 3 years (from 2008 - 2011) and was amazed at how they constantly preached "transparency", and they actually did "walk the talk", with lots of "checks and balances".. My presumption at the time was that other German OEM's operated in a similar fashion -- boy was that perception wrong !