Scandal-Hit Volkswagen Suspends More Senior Managers

Reuters reported last Thursday that VW would fire top brand officials as it tries to recoup from the embarrassment. The economy and transport minister of VW’s home state, Lower-Saxony – which owns about 20pc of VW – said those responsible for allowing the manipulation to happen must be held to account.

Volkswagen dealers and owners are expressing anger and frustration as word spreads about how the carmaker rigged diesel emissions to pass U.S. tests. European authorities later found that the level of pollutants emitted from affected vehicles was up to 40 times higher than regulatory limits.

Volkswagen insisted was a technical glitch that could be easily solved.

One of the worst parts to all of this is that Volkswagen is a parent company of brands that include Audi and Porsche. After a denial for over a year, the company finally confessed the installation of “defeat devices” in the cars for “manipulating” the emissions display.

Labelling the manipulation of data as “unacceptable” and “illegal”, Alexander Dobrindt said vehicles with 1.2 litre engines may also have been involved in the fraud.

VW has set aside €6.5bn to help cover the costs of any fallout from the crisis, including a recall, but industry experts and analysts believe this figure will need to be much higher as governments around the world launch investigations into the scandal. Others say they are joining class-action lawsuits against VW.

Emissions testers at the company’s site in Westlake Village, California, evaluated all the cars involved according to criteria sent from Germany and translated into English, and all results were sent back to Germany before being passed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, one of the people said.

While the dismissal of Hackenberg, Hatz and Horn is yet to be confirmed, Volkswagen board member Olaf Lies told German media there will be further changes in employment as its internal investigation into the diesel scandal continues.