VW to pay €1 billion fine in the dieselgate fiasco

MANILA: The latest findings in the VW Dieselgate fiasco reveal that Germany's Brunswick public prosecutor has imposed €1 billion fine on VW Group for cheating diesel emissions tests.

Following the court order, VW released a statement which said, “Following a 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. 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.”

The VW emissions scandal or dieselgate came into the highlight in September 2015. It was found out that VW had deliberately programmed its TDI (Turbocharged Direct Injection) diesel engines to cheat laboratory emission tests. This custom tuning of the engines produced NOx emissions that were well under the limits while being tested in the laboratory. However, in real-world driving scenarios, the engines emit out 40 times more NOx than the permissible limit.

A total of 10.3 million cars were affected by the dieselgate worldwide. So far the scandal had cost VW Group a fortune. The €1 billion fine imposed on VW Group is the largest fine lodged against VW in Europe since the emissions scandal first came into the picture. VW also had to pay around $24 billion in fines and costs associated with fixing the affected cars in the United States alone.

The Brunswick legal case represents Germany, as a whole and individual German states will not be taking separate action. But there could be more legal challenges for VW coming from various other national authorities and customers. There is another legal investigation into the scandal that is currently in process in Stuttgart. This ongoing investigation involves numerous high-profile past and present VW Group executives.

The dieselgate has shaken the entire world. It is because of this emissions scandal that even the diesel fuel went under the scrutiny of authorities which is trying to realise the benefits of the fuel. Diesel engines demand a high cost of ownership, high maintenance costs, and attract more taxation. Many similar factors have caused people to discard diesel-engine cars.