Volkswagen has been handed a €1 billion (£880m) fine by Germany's Brunswick public prosecutor for cheating diesel emissions tests.
In a statement released today, Volkswagen said: “Following thorough examination, Volkswagen AG accepted the fine and it will not lodge an appeal against it. Volkswagen AG, by doing so, admits its responsibility for the diesel crisis and considers this as a further major step towards the latter being overcome.”
This is the largest fine lodged against Volkswagen in Europe since the emissions scandal, although it has had to pay around $24 billion (around £18 billion) in fines and costs associated with fixing the affected cars in the United States alone.
10.7 million cars worldwide were affected by the emissions scandal, with further legal challenges expected to come from other national authorities and customers. The Brunswick legal case represents the whole of Germany, so individual German states will not be taking similar action individually.
Volkswagen admitted that “According to the findings of the investigation carried out by the Braunschweig public prosecutor, monitoring duties had been breached in the Powertrain Development department in the context of vehicle tests.”
Since the emissions scandal broke, diesel has been under scrutiny by authorities as to its benefits, and a large-scale public abandonment of diesel-engined cars has taken place as a result of the threat of rising ownership costs through increased taxation and legislative levies on diesel car ownership.
An ongoing legal investigation into the scandal is also taking place in Stuttgart, involving numerous high-profile Volkswagen Group executives, both past and present.
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VW Fine
I remember a golf professional who was asked to try out a slice proof golf club.New invention.
He smiled and proceeded to slice the ball with monotonous regularity,back to the drawing board for the "inventor".
I view these arbitrary emission levels in the same way.Once the engine has been passed,without computer assistance,after a month or year on the road I could almost garentee that the emissions would not meet the required levels.Standard of fuel,driving conditions,hot,cold and a drivers style plus lack of servicing would effect the engines operation.There are a thousand things, which effect the operational health of an engine.The latest system,auto stop start.Engineers have estimated that in a cars life the start stop cycle will occur about 500K times.On a cold engine,requiring richer fuel mixture, it must emit more emissions over a continually running and hot engine.Why do trucks leave there diesel engines running?One reason is the particulate filters need to be at a very high temperature to operate properly,same in a car.I could go on but I won't.
The real surprise for
The real surprise for everyone, including VW, is that in the court of public opinion theyve not been punished in the slightest - VW is seling more cars than ever, despite being the root cause of CO2 emissions from cars rising due to the drop in diesel sales. Cheating cnuts
Why has the Uk Gov not goneafter VW Audi as well
Probably the Uk is far too soft ,they could go after a billion and give this to Uk technology investments eg electric and new energy sources.
In that case
A fair few VAG cars are sold in the UK so why aren't our goverement going for £700,000,000. It could pay for hospita to fix all the lung issues caused by diesel cars in the cities