CrunchSlaughtered
RPM Ruler
VAG is fined another billion, this time by the German authorities.
VW Is Said to Cheat on Diesel Emissions; U.S. Orders Big Recall
Cashmere
RPM Ruler
Volkswagen fined one billlion euros by German prosecutors over emissions cheating
link: Volkswagen fined one billlion euros by German prosecutors over...
Daimler Does Dieselgate: Up to 1 Million Vehicles Have 'Defeat' Device, Says Regulators
Link: Daimler Does Dieselgate: 1 Million Vehicles Have 'Defeat' Device
link: Volkswagen fined one billlion euros by German prosecutors over...
Daimler Does Dieselgate: Up to 1 Million Vehicles Have 'Defeat' Device, Says Regulators
Link: Daimler Does Dieselgate: 1 Million Vehicles Have 'Defeat' Device
EnI
Piston Pioneer
Audi CEO Rupert Stadler ARRESTED & TAKEN INTO CUSTODY!
Audi CEO Stadler Taken Into Custody in Diesel-Cheating Probe
By Elisabeth Behrmann and Christoph Rauwald
18. June 2018 11:09 GMT+2 Updated on 18. June 2018 11:52 GMT+2
Munich prosecutors investigating Audi’s role in the 2015 scandal confirmed they arrested Stadler, 55, in the Bavarian capital because of risk he may tamper with evidence, according to an emailed statement Monday.
The decision throws into doubt the manager’s future at the helm of Volkswagen’s most important earnings contributor. Pressure on Stadler has steadily built over the past few months, including a raid at his home last week. Until now, backing of the Porsche and Piech families, who control the world’s biggest carmaker, ensured him continuing in the role he’s held since 2007. Volkswagen’s supervisory board is meeting today, where Stadler’s future will be among the topics of discussion.
Rupert Stadler
Photographer: Pau Barrena/Bloomberg
‘I don’t think VW can afford to leave Stadler in the position,” Juergen Pieper, a Frankfurt-based analyst at Metzler Bank, said by phone. “It’s actually a mystery to me that they left him in place for so long.”
Even if he wasn’t directly involved in the diesel-engine manipulation, there has been an obvious lack of oversight at Audi that stretched over years, Pieper said. “What is really disappointing as well is that 2.5 years after the diesel cheating came to light the brand continues to face scrutiny over software used in current models.”
Multiple Probes
Prosecutors in Munich, Stuttgart and Braunschweig are continuing their investigations of the carmaker and its units. In April, Stuttgart authorities arrested a senior engine manager at the company’s luxury Porsche brand, after conducted raids at 10 sites as part of a long-running probe. Wolfgang Hatz, a former VW manager who joined Audi unit in 2001 and from 2007 to 2011 ran VW’s motor development, remains in custody in Munich.
Volkswagen declined 2.2 percent to 157.88 euros and traded 2 percent lower at 11:50 a.m. in local trading, extending losses this year to 5.2 percent.
Nearly three years on from the scandal, VW faces a multitude of probes both in Germany and abroad, with legal proceedings in 55 countries pending and investigations into stock-market manipulation in its home market. The company has earmarked more than 27 billion euros ($31 billion) in fines, buybacks and costs. Investors have accused the company of informing investors too late about the probe, a view the carmaker has contested.
Just last week, Volkswagen agreed to pay a 1 billion-euro fine imposed by German prosecutors for cheating to get around diesel-emissions regulations.
— With assistance by Karin Matussek, and Hugo Miller
Source: Audi CEO Stadler Taken Into Custody in Diesel-Cheating Probe
Audi CEO Stadler Taken Into Custody in Diesel-Cheating Probe
By Elisabeth Behrmann and Christoph Rauwald
18. June 2018 11:09 GMT+2 Updated on 18. June 2018 11:52 GMT+2
- Munich prosecutors cite evidence-tampering risk for decision
- VW manager becomes highest-profile arrest in emissions probe
Munich prosecutors investigating Audi’s role in the 2015 scandal confirmed they arrested Stadler, 55, in the Bavarian capital because of risk he may tamper with evidence, according to an emailed statement Monday.
The decision throws into doubt the manager’s future at the helm of Volkswagen’s most important earnings contributor. Pressure on Stadler has steadily built over the past few months, including a raid at his home last week. Until now, backing of the Porsche and Piech families, who control the world’s biggest carmaker, ensured him continuing in the role he’s held since 2007. Volkswagen’s supervisory board is meeting today, where Stadler’s future will be among the topics of discussion.
Rupert Stadler
Photographer: Pau Barrena/Bloomberg
‘I don’t think VW can afford to leave Stadler in the position,” Juergen Pieper, a Frankfurt-based analyst at Metzler Bank, said by phone. “It’s actually a mystery to me that they left him in place for so long.”
Even if he wasn’t directly involved in the diesel-engine manipulation, there has been an obvious lack of oversight at Audi that stretched over years, Pieper said. “What is really disappointing as well is that 2.5 years after the diesel cheating came to light the brand continues to face scrutiny over software used in current models.”
Multiple Probes
Prosecutors in Munich, Stuttgart and Braunschweig are continuing their investigations of the carmaker and its units. In April, Stuttgart authorities arrested a senior engine manager at the company’s luxury Porsche brand, after conducted raids at 10 sites as part of a long-running probe. Wolfgang Hatz, a former VW manager who joined Audi unit in 2001 and from 2007 to 2011 ran VW’s motor development, remains in custody in Munich.
Volkswagen declined 2.2 percent to 157.88 euros and traded 2 percent lower at 11:50 a.m. in local trading, extending losses this year to 5.2 percent.
Nearly three years on from the scandal, VW faces a multitude of probes both in Germany and abroad, with legal proceedings in 55 countries pending and investigations into stock-market manipulation in its home market. The company has earmarked more than 27 billion euros ($31 billion) in fines, buybacks and costs. Investors have accused the company of informing investors too late about the probe, a view the carmaker has contested.
Just last week, Volkswagen agreed to pay a 1 billion-euro fine imposed by German prosecutors for cheating to get around diesel-emissions regulations.
— With assistance by Karin Matussek, and Hugo Miller
Source: Audi CEO Stadler Taken Into Custody in Diesel-Cheating Probe
Attachments
D
Deleted member 1071
Many years as VAGs' "Golden Boy" made Herr Stadler haughty...and left him coated with Teflon, it seems. Until now.
Sag' beim Abschied leise "Servus", Rupert."
Sag' beim Abschied leise "Servus", Rupert."
KiwiRob
Autotechnik Ace
We right at the beginning I said it can't just be VAG cheating, I'm now happy I was right and someone else is in the shit!!
EnI
Piston Pioneer
Inevitable & expected ... Arrested Stadler resigned from Audi CEO position, new CEO named ...
Audi names new leader after CEO arrested
by Charles Riley
Audi has tapped its top sales executive to lead the company temporarily after the CEO was arrested.
The luxury German automaker announced Tuesday that Abraham Schot would take the reins after CEO Rupert Stadler was arrested as part of an investigation into emissions cheating.
Audi said Stadler asked to be released from his positions on the management boards of Audi and its parent company, Volkswagen.
Munich prosecutors said Monday that Stadler, who has worked for Volkswagen since 1990, had been detained because of concerns he could influence witnesses in an ongoing fraud investigation.
He is the highest-ranking Volkswagen executive to be arrested in connection to a costly diesel emissions scandal that burst into public view in 2015.
Shares in Volkswagen (VLKAF) dropped nearly 3% on Tuesday.
Audi said it had agreed to suspend Stadler "until the circumstances that led to his arrest have been clarified."
CNNMoney (London)First published June 19, 2018: 8:39 AM ET
Audi names new leader after CEO arrested
Audi names new leader after CEO arrested
by Charles Riley
Audi has tapped its top sales executive to lead the company temporarily after the CEO was arrested.
The luxury German automaker announced Tuesday that Abraham Schot would take the reins after CEO Rupert Stadler was arrested as part of an investigation into emissions cheating.
Audi said Stadler asked to be released from his positions on the management boards of Audi and its parent company, Volkswagen.
Munich prosecutors said Monday that Stadler, who has worked for Volkswagen since 1990, had been detained because of concerns he could influence witnesses in an ongoing fraud investigation.
He is the highest-ranking Volkswagen executive to be arrested in connection to a costly diesel emissions scandal that burst into public view in 2015.
Shares in Volkswagen (VLKAF) dropped nearly 3% on Tuesday.
Audi said it had agreed to suspend Stadler "until the circumstances that led to his arrest have been clarified."
CNNMoney (London)First published June 19, 2018: 8:39 AM ET
Audi names new leader after CEO arrested
D
Deleted member 1071
Frankly, this is overdue. Highly influential powers-that-be (major shareholders) have apparently been holding a protective hand over Herr Stadler. Far too long. Rumours have it that a steadily increasing number of Audi employees, suppliers, dealers, product researchers, etc. are becoming more and more disgruntled regarding Stadlers' management modus operandi. Stadler having a foremostly financial rather than engineering backround also denied him a degree of intracorporate mid-to-lower management "sympathies as Audi is traditionally a highly "engineering driven" company. Especially after the initial praise of his undeniable accomplishments during the earlier part of his tenure as Audi CEO began to wear thin in face of "Dieselgate", overly conservative R&D and marketing and consequent lackluster volume model (i.e. A4, a very rocky, highly political, costly D5 A8 developement process) sales, etc.
Mick Briesgau
Tire Trailblazer
Another step towards the banishment of the carindustry from Germany. DAIMLER is opening a new development center in China. It’s not clever and often contra-productive to have more such centers. Or is DAIMLER keeping it’s options open?
German green/left politicians are destroying German’s industry. First the energy sector, now this.
German green/left politicians are destroying German’s industry. First the energy sector, now this.
EnI
Piston Pioneer
Not only Daimler but BMW as well: Opening of the new Shanghai Research & Development Center as part of BMW’s Innovation Day China.
While VAG (incl Audi) is already ahead of both, having R&D centers there for years now.
Some R&D is needed there due to local-specific products (eg. LWB versions of some existing models; or special new models).
But the main reason for setting new R&D centers there is due China's status of being IT superpower (just like USA). While Germany is not. Germany is still stuck in its Machinenbau era. Analog & mechanical stuff are still their thing ... but having huge difficulties with pure digital solutions. Best IT human resources are in US & China now. Definitely not Germany. Not even EU. Therefore German industry has huge difficulties getting all the IT engineers.
Is it due to wrong political decisions not to school more computer & IT engineers? I don't know. But I guess the management & main shareholders weren't progressive enough either. A cultural issue? Germany seems like a dinosaur compared to US & China when it comes to 21. century tech. Creative out-of-the-box thinking is somehow unknown to Germans ... no revolutionary breakthroughs on grander scale (bar Adolf &Co., perhaps? bad joke ... sorry).
Just like R&D centers in Silicon Valley the Chinese R&D centers will focus mainly on electrification (battery tech), autonomous driving, digital services, futuristic design solutions etc.
D
Deleted member 1071
Germany is truly sloth-like when it comes to meeting the demands of a brave, new IT-focused world. As a citizen, I can often, in horror, witness the cumbersome, meandering, reactive rather than active mode of confronting the pressing issues at hand.
An interesting case in point is Germanys' Ruhrgebiet, once the countrys' industrial powerhouse. Alas, an era long passed. The region, having in areas become destitute, is in gravely dire need of reinvention. And while the acknowledgement of this is certainly apparent, the inability to initiate the measures needed to implement rapid change has become glaringly obvious. I suspect this can be the product of a combination of incompetence, complacency, illusory, irrational "political correctness" that is not only anchored in matters of the environment, but also on a broader political scale as well.
For example, many Israeli IT specialists (Israel is quite the IT powerhouse) have been contracted in order to assist Ruhr-based companies in finally "getting with the program". But just a fleeting look at the sociopolitical environment in the Ruhrgebiet (and in Germany in general) leaves me suspecting that these guests may feel far less than welcome. These are guests that are able to make a substantial contribution towards the success of the aforementioned reinvention.
An interesting case in point is Germanys' Ruhrgebiet, once the countrys' industrial powerhouse. Alas, an era long passed. The region, having in areas become destitute, is in gravely dire need of reinvention. And while the acknowledgement of this is certainly apparent, the inability to initiate the measures needed to implement rapid change has become glaringly obvious. I suspect this can be the product of a combination of incompetence, complacency, illusory, irrational "political correctness" that is not only anchored in matters of the environment, but also on a broader political scale as well.
For example, many Israeli IT specialists (Israel is quite the IT powerhouse) have been contracted in order to assist Ruhr-based companies in finally "getting with the program". But just a fleeting look at the sociopolitical environment in the Ruhrgebiet (and in Germany in general) leaves me suspecting that these guests may feel far less than welcome. These are guests that are able to make a substantial contribution towards the success of the aforementioned reinvention.
Giannis
Staff member
Why Mick, because they arrested Stadler or because they pursue a punishment for VW's "sins"?
Just because it's a financial leader, a huge company employing thousands of people, doesn't mean that it's above the law, or that cheating is acceptable?
Mick Briesgau
Tire Trailblazer
Managers stand with one foot in jail, as they like to stress in justifying their sometimes considerable salaries. Thomas Middelhoff knows this too well, as well as the hedge fund manager Florian Homm or the high-ranking employee of the adidas group, who was arrested last year in America on suspicion of corruption
But this is about a new dimension. It's about a few micrograms of nitrogen oxides that are supposed to be getting too much out of the exhaust. According to scientific findings, human lives are not endangered either by particulate matter or nitrogen oxides in the air - in contrast to the alarm cries of the Abmahnverein Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), which makes rich booty with false but louder shouts into the world. In the case of real malfunctions of the cars due to constructive mistakes, on the other hand, in which people died again and again, the automakers came away with millions of euros; As a rule, no persons in charge were detained.
So far, there was a gray area in the exhaust emissions. As usual, the cars were optimized for the test cycles and complied with the limit values valid at the time of the approval. But they were only partially defined. The regulations also contained a whole range of ambiguities. Now the Kraftfahrtbundesamt apparently says under political pressure that limit values have been clearly exceeded.
So far, there is no legal basis for what is and what is not fraud. Just recently, Daimler announced it would bring some legal clarity into the matter. What is technical, what is possibly manipulation? This should not be an excuse for possible frauds, if they are proven. But one should not overestimate the problem, not get carried away. And that’s what’s currently happening in Germany, applauded by certain politicians and NGO’s who’d like to see individual transport abolished.
Since September 2017, ie for almost nine months, a former Chief Development Officer of Porsche has been in custody without knowing or even indicting concrete facts…! For me it's getting out of hand.
Sunny
Premium
You are absolutely wrong -
The VW diesel cars were emitting about 40 times the legal US limit - the legal limit os 0.043g/km of NOx. With the cheat devices, the cars were emitting about 0.022g/km. While in reality, the cars were emitting as much as 1.5g/km. That is not a few micrograms by any stretch of the imagination. Multiply with the number of cars (11 million) and the distance they traveled over the years and that is not a few "micrograms", but millions of tons of NOx spewed into the atmosphere over and above the legal limit.[1]
You are again grossly wrong. The ill effects of NOx on the human body is well documented. Not to mention the role NOx plays in the formation of Smog and Acid rain.[2]
No, again you are wrong. At least, in US, the law explicitly says the limit applies at all time and it also explicitly forbids the use of cheat devices. Not to mention, VW lied to the federal investigators which in itself is a crime. There is no gray area here.
1. The West Virginia Study That Started the Volkswagen Scandal - CityLab
2. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi/P10006ZO.PDF?Dockey=P10006ZO.PDF
And these are easily verifiable facts anyone can check against credible sources with very little effort. Making me think, to get them so grossly wrong on multiple sides, you either have your head firmly buried in the sand or is deliberately trying to mislead.
D
Deleted member 1071
While I agree that politically-motivated and often irrational "anti Diesel-powered passenger car hysteria" runs rampant, I do find that the defeat-device issue that has been plaguing VAG, Bosch and more recently Daimler-Benz, constitutes fraudulent behavior that justifies substantial punitive measures against the offenders.
I can only shake my head in disbelief when considering how avoidable this debacle could have been. Smaller, independent companies such as the German-based Twintec display how relatively uncomplicated and cost-conscious diesel engines can be made genuinely "clean". In many cases utilizing readily available OEM hardware at costs amounting to an estimated approx. 1500 EUROS per conversion. A surcharge that I suspect would have been accepted by the politically-correct environmentalists that would relish the aspect of owning a clean, technically state of the art automobile. Then again, the dragging of Germanys' federal authority for motor vehicles (KBA) feet has hampered the certification process. Welcome to Absurdistan.
Bean-counting, short-sighted "more clever, more devious than thou" hubris has now cooked a few geese.
I can only shake my head in disbelief when considering how avoidable this debacle could have been. Smaller, independent companies such as the German-based Twintec display how relatively uncomplicated and cost-conscious diesel engines can be made genuinely "clean". In many cases utilizing readily available OEM hardware at costs amounting to an estimated approx. 1500 EUROS per conversion. A surcharge that I suspect would have been accepted by the politically-correct environmentalists that would relish the aspect of owning a clean, technically state of the art automobile. Then again, the dragging of Germanys' federal authority for motor vehicles (KBA) feet has hampered the certification process. Welcome to Absurdistan.
Bean-counting, short-sighted "more clever, more devious than thou" hubris has now cooked a few geese.
Cashmere
RPM Ruler
Centurion
Subscriber
Very cunning!
Cashmere
RPM Ruler
First cars, now trucks. Daimler has confirmed it has halted sales of the Actros trucks due to concerns that its software switches off the exhaust gas filter in certain situations.
Daimler reports conspicuous software function in truck engine - sales stopped
Link: Daimler meldet auffällige Softwarefunktion bei Lkw-Motor
Daimler reports conspicuous software function in truck engine - sales stopped
Link: Daimler meldet auffällige Softwarefunktion bei Lkw-Motor
D
Deleted member 25
Marvelous, mustache man must be shitting in his pants.
EnI
Piston Pioneer
Similar threads
Trending content
-
-
-
Thread 'Brand-independent AI generated design concepts in the digital media.'
- Design FIRST
Replies: 7 -
-
