Volkswagen manipulated emissions data?

[nitpicker1]

Prosecutors to investigate ex-VW boss


3 hrs ago


German prosecutors have begun an investigation against former Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn

The probe will look at "allegations of fraud in the sale of cars with manipulated emissions data", the prosecutor's office said.

Mr Winterkorn quit last week after almost nine years at the helm of VW, saying he had no knowledge of the manipulation of emissions results.

Regulators in the US had found "cheat" software in some diesel engines.

In the German legal system, anyone can file a criminal complaint with prosecutors, who are then obliged to examine them and decide whether there is enough evidence to open a formal investigation.

In this case, following the US revelations about the rigged tests, prosecutors in Braunschweig, near VW's headquarters in Wolfsburg, received about a dozen complaints, including one from Volkswagen itself, said spokeswoman Julia Meyer.

Over the weekend, German media reported that some of Volkswagen's own staff and one of its suppliers had warned years ago about the illegal use of so-called "defeat devices" to detect when a car was being tested and alter the running of its engines.

The head of VW's Porsche division, Matthias Mueller, was appointed on Friday as Mr Winterkorn's successor.

EU talks

VW has apologised for cheating emissions tests, but says that some 11 million cars across the group may can contain the computer code.

A top executive at Europe's biggest carmaker will hold talks in Brussels with a senior EU official. The scandal has cast a cloud over the whole European car industry, with other manufacturers facing demands to disclose if they ever attempted to manipulate emissions tests.

The EU's Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska will meet Herbert Diess, the head of the Volkswagen brand and one of the executives tipped to replace Mr Winterkorn.

"Commissioner Bienkowska will meet the (chairman of VW brand) tomorrow," European Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso told a news briefing on Monday.

Audi admission

The EC is the top regulator for pollution emissions in the EU and is under fire for dragging its feet against carmakers despite evidence of suspicious pollution testing.

However, the commission says national authorities have may not have enforced policies sufficiently.

On Monday, VW-owned Audi said 2.1 million of its cars worldwide were fitted with the software.

Some 1.42 million Audi vehicles with so-called EU5 engines are affected in western Europe, with 577,000 in Germany, and almost 13,000 in the US.

Affected models include the A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3 and Q5, a spokesman told the Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, Reuters was among several media organisations reporting that VW had suspended senior R&D heads across the group, including from Audi and Porsche.

VW shares have plunged about 35% since it admitted cheating the US emissions tests. The company faces investigations and potential fines from regulators and prosecutors, as well as potential lawsuits from customers and shareholders.

Several countries, including Italy, France and South Korea have launched investigations, and Switzerland has temporarily banned the sale of VW diesel-engine models.

http://www.msn.com/en-nz/money/news/prosecutors-to-investigate-ex-vw-boss/ar-AAeSIQ0?ocid=spartandhp

[nitpicker1]

Volkswagen cut from top sustainability index

Kalyeena Makortoff   | @kalyeena
11 Hours Ago

Volkswagen will be dropped from a leading sustainability index next month in the wake of an emissions scandal that has wiped billions off the automaker's value.

Once the darling of fuel efficient automakers, Volkswagen will be removed from the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) as of October 6, a press release from index organizers RobecoSAM and S&P Dow Jones Indices said Tuesday.

A review of Volkswagen's standing on the index was sparked by news that Volkswagen had manipulated emissions tests of its diesel-powered vehicles. ...

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/29/


background
Meet the man who uncovered Volkswagen's lie
Wednesday, 23 Sep 2015 | 6:31 PM ET
Reuters
                      ...
163
COMMENTS

nbc.com/2015/09/23/meet-the-man-who-uncovered-volkswagens-lie.html

[nitpicker1]

Volkswagen emissions scam: Small engineering team uncovers massive corporate scandal
ABC News   

4 hrs ago

 
The engineer who led the small research team that discovered Volkswagen was cheating emissions tests says he never expected to stumble across the scandal.
 
Europe's largest carmaker is in a state of severe damage control, facing billions of dollars in fines and losses as well as a fraud investigation.

Dan Carder said he hopes the findings will generate more work for his research team.© Provided by ABC News Dan Carder said he hopes the findings will generate more work for his research team.
It comes after Volkswagen admitted to cheating diesel emissions tests in the United States, in a scandal which it says may affect 11 million of their cars.


But it was purely by chance that the scandal was uncovered by a small research team at West Virginia University.

Dan Carder, who leads the university's Centre for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions, told Lateline his team won a bid to conduct emissions tests on small passenger cars.

For fairness, they randomly selected three different makes of vehicle for the study — a BMW, a Mercedes and a Volkswagen.

Mr Carder said to test each car's emissions, they used what is called portable emissions measurement systems.

"These are miniaturised emissions measurement systems that were actually pioneered back in the early 2000s to look at heavy-duty diesel emissions," he said.

"This equipment can be put on the automobiles and driven around in a normal driving routes just like the consumer would navigate them."

These portable emissions measurement systems were what caused problems for Volkswagen.

Volkswagen vehicles were equipped with so-called "defeat devices", which allowed the car to meet clean-air standards during official emissions testing, but to then turn off during normal operations.

Mr Carder said it was quite easy for defeat devices to detect when a car was being tested.

"There are many things that one could use to identify that the vehicle's not being operated over the road," he said.

"Steering wheels aren't being moved, ABS sensors aren't working accordingly, GPS shows that it's sitting still."

Mr Carder said his research team presented their findings from their study 18 months ago, triggering the US Environmental Protection Agency's investigation.

He said he never expected it would lead to such a scandal.

"Absolutely not. We've seen off cycle emissions like this before and others have reported similar things and typically what happens is the manufacturer gets notified, the manufacturer will do a voluntary recall, they will do some revisions," he said.

But Mr Carder hoped their discovery would lead to more work for his team.

"We would hope to be bombarded by all kinds of offers to do work because that's the way we stay around," he said

http://www.msn.com/en-nz/money/news/volkswagen-emissions-scam-small-engineering-team-uncovers-massive-corporate-scandal/ar-AAeUKUL?ocid=spartanntp

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Lying, cheating capitalists, eh? 

[reality]

dont mention the war

[nitpicker1]

but wait, there's more -

re http://xtranewscommunity2.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,14811.0.html

Takata airbag recall could expand to seven more automakers

by
 Claire Groden 
  September 29, 2015, 3:20 PM EDT

The recall already covers 11 companies, but it could expand to include other vehicles using the problematic air bag.

The other companies that received letters last week were Jaguar-Land Rover, Suzuki, Volvo Trucks, Volkswagen and Spartan Motors.

http://fortune.com/2015/09/29/takata-airbag-recall-expands/

 

[nitpicker1]

Dirty Diesel Report Sinking BMW As Volkswagen Fallout Grows
By Aaron Cole on September 24, 2015

German magazine Auto Bild reported Thursday that the diesel BMW X3 exceeded by 11 times allowable limits of nitrogen oxide in a growing scandal started by Volkswagen’s admission it had cheated on emissions tests. BMW shares tumbled 5 percent Thursday morning after the news.

“All measured data suggest that this is not a VW-specific issue,” International Council on Clean Transportation Europe Managing Director Peter Mock told the German magazine.

BMW denied any deception, telling USA Today in an email that it “does not manipulate or rig any emissions tests.

“We observe the legal requirements in each country and adhere to all local testing requirements,” BMW said in a statement. “When it comes to our vehicles, there is no difference in the treatment of exhaust emissions whether they are on rollers or on the road.”BMW said it would ask ICCT “for clarification of the test they carried out.”

In its 133-page May 2014 report, researchers at West Virginia University found that a diesel model of the BMW X5 generally met or exceeded legal standards along with 13 other vehicles.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/09/dirty-diesel-report-sinking-bmw-volkswagen-fallout-grows/


 

[nitpicker1]

re http://xtranewscommunity2.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,14809.msg165525.html#msg165525

ooops

Prosecutor error: Volkswagen's former CEO not a suspect in diesel scandal

As if the Volkswagen scandal wasn't bad enough for Germany's reputation, state prosecutors admitted Thursday that they jumped the gun by announcing an investigation into the company's former CEO.

In a statement on Monday, prosecutors in Volkswagen (VLKAY)'s home state of Lower Saxony said they had launched a preliminary investigation into Martin Winterkorn on suspicion of fraudulently selling diesel vehicles with rigged exhaust emissions.

Now they have been forced into an embarrassing U-turn.


*
"The first press release incorrectly mentioned a preliminary investigation against Dr Winterkorn," the state prosecutor's office said. "Such an investigation has not been opened against him. Dr Winterkorn is not a suspect in this matter."

* my bolding emphasis


Winterkorn resigned a week ago after the company admitted it may have falsified emissions data on 11 million vehicles worldwide. The scandal first came to light a few days earlier when U.S. regulators revealed that the group had programmed nearly 500,000 cars to emit far fewer harmful gases in official tests than in normal road driving.

Winterkorn said he was stunned by the scale of the misconduct. In his resignation statement, he said he accepted responsibility for the scandal, but insisted he had no knowledge of the manipulation of emissions tests.
 
The prosecutor's office said it regretted the confusion, which it said stemmed from an administrative error. It had failed to distinguish between the process of opening a case file, and the launch of a formal preliminary investigation following confirmation of initial grounds for suspicion.

Prosecutors are pursuing a wider investigation against unnamed employees at Volkswagen with the aim of establishing who was responsible. The company has suspended an unknown number of employees. It has not named them.

Volkswagen is also conducting its own inquiry, and has hired top U.S. law firm Jones Day to carry out an investigation that will take several months to complete.

If found guilty of serious fraud, Volkswagen executives could face a hefty personal fine or as much as 10 years in jail.

The automaker it preparing to refit the affected vehicles to ensure they comply with pollution limits, and promised to publish more information about the technical fix next week. It has also released more details about which cars are affected, and where.

In total, about five million VW branded cars and 1.8 million VW light commercial vehicles are affected worldwide. Other group brands such as Audi (2.1 million cars), Skoda (1.2 million cars) and Seat (700,000 cars) are also involved.

About 2.8 million of the vehicles are in Germany, roughly 1.2 million in the U.K, nearly one million in France, and almost 700,000 in Spain.

Customers will be told soon whether their vehicle needs a refit, and the technical details will be presented to regulators in October. National websites are being set up to keep customers informed over the coming weeks and months.

https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=volkswagen&FORM=NWRFSH

[nitpicker1]

Ford: We Didn't Cheat Like Volkswagen



The Motley Fool   

John Rosevear

3 hrs ago

Breathe a tentative sigh of relief, auto investors: It's possible that the cheating on emissions tests might not have been an industrywide thing after all.
 
The head of Ford's operations in Germany -- where it sells many diesel-powered cars -- said emphatically on Thursday that the Blue Oval was "not involved in any manipulation" of emissions tests.

Stocks of most automakers have been very volatile since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency charged Volkswagen on Sept. 18 with rigging its diesel-powered cars to cheat on tests that measure pollutants emitted in exhaust.

VW's shares lost a third of their value in the days that followed the allegations, and its CEO was forced to resign. Investors have worried that other automakers might be found to have cheated on testing intended to enforce increasingly tough environmental regulations around the world.

But so far at least, it looks like VW was an outlier - and many of its peers are expressing their displeasure with its actions.

Volkswagen is accused of selling 11 million vehicles equipped with software that cheated on emissions tests. The software turned on parts of the engine's emission-control hardware only when it detected that a test was under way. In normal driving, the cars' exhaust was much dirtier than allowed.

VW has essentially admitted to the EPA's allegations, and it has promised to repair the 11 million vehicles affected so that they comply with pollution rules. VW has set aside $7.3 billion to cover the costs of the scandal, but many analysts think the ultimate costs to the company will likely be higher.

The allegations against VW led many observers to ask: Were all of the automakers cheating on these tests? It's an open secret that many countries allow automakers to conduct emissions tests under optimized -- even unrealistic -- conditions. But out-and-out cheating like Volkswagen's appears not to have been happening.

Several other automakers, including both of VW's German rivals, have emphatically insisted that their cars comply with environmental regulations, without any cheating. So far, governments seem to agree: A spokesman for Germany's transport ministry said on Friday that it has no evidence that any automakers other than Volkswagen manipulated emissions tests.

If other automakers have been cheating, it's likely to be uncovered before long. The EPA is expanding its investigation to examine more than two dozen diesel-powered vehicles from other automakers for signs of cheating, the Financial Times reported. German regulators are expected to conduct similar tests on other diesel-powered vehicles sold in Europe.

But at least as of right now, there's no evidence against any automaker other than Volkswagen. And more and more of those automakers are coming out with statements condemning their giant German rival.

VW's rivals insist they weren't cheating, worry about consumer trust

Ford Germany chief Bernhard Mattes wasn't the only auto executive to push back on suggestions that cheating might be rampant in the auto industry. BMW has insisted repeatedly that its diesels comply with pollution laws under any driving conditions.

BMW product-development chief Klaus Froehlich said again on Thursday that a system of "continuous checks" would block any attempt to put such a system into production at BMW. "Manipulation does not happen with us. I can flatly rule that out," he said in remarks reported by Reuters.

Toyota doesn't sell diesels in the U.S., but the CEO of Toyota's North America operations, Jim Lentz, said that he is confident that the company's diesel-powered vehicles sold elsewhere don't have devices that defeat emissions controls. Lentz expressed concerns that consumers would "lose trust in the industry" in the wake of the VW scandal, the Detroit News reported.

Those concerns were echoed by Honda's chairman, Fumihiko Ike. "This one company's deeds have damaged trust in the auto industry," Ike said, according to a Bloomberg report. He said that his remarks reflected his personal views, not those of Honda -- but it was a significant statement.

Pressure is growing as VW scrambles to come up with a fix for the cars


VW will continue to face immense pressure in the coming week. It is scrambling to comply with a German government demand that it announce a recall plan within the next few days. New investigations are under way in France, Italy, Switzerland -- and California, which has strict state environmental laws.

It's unclear whether VW will ultimately have to face criminal charges. But it will get a taste of government wrath this week: VW U.S. chief Michael Horn is set to testify before Congress on Thursday.


The next billion-dollar iSecret



*The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something at its recent event, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors!

http://www.msn.com/en-nz/money/economy/ford-we-didnt-cheat-like-volkswagen/ar-AAf5mHC?ocid=spartandhp

ummmm

*Google's Self-Driving Car Project's fuel?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

yeahbut

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/04/vw-scandal-emissions-test-body-conflict-of-interest-accusation

[nitpicker1]

German Regulator Orders Halt to Maple Bank Transactions


By JACK EWINGFEB. 7, 2016

FRANKFURT — German regulators said on Sunday that they had imposed a moratorium on business activity by a niche investment bank in Frankfurt that played a prominent role in attempts by the Porsche family to take over Volkswagen several years ago. ...



...Maple Bank was at the center of an attempt in 2008 by Porsche, the sports car maker, and its family owners to take over Volkswagen. The takeover bid is also the focus of a criminal trial underway in Stuttgart, Germany, against two former Porsche executives accused of market manipulation.

read the rest at
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/business/dealbook/german-regulator-orders-halt-to-maple-bank-transactions.html?_r=0