VW Faces $17B Fine for Emissions Scam

"the settlement allows Volkswagen to modify some of the vehicles we buy back so they can be returned to commerce rather than scrapped"

What?! Europe, Asia, Africa, South America?!

 

I'm trying to care . . .

Bob Wilson

 

Initial reports of the deal stated that the cars had to honestly meet the EPA certification they were supposed to meet in the first place before they could be resold, even if VW shipped the cars to another market.

Which could be more wasteful and environmentally damaging than letting VW honestly certify them to another market's emission regulations and sell the cars there. A portion of the cheater VWs are new, or almost new. If VW can't get them recertified and sold, they will just scrap them. So the energy and any pollution that went into making the car will just be thrown away. It would be like dumping the soda out of a fresh can in order to recycle the can.

 

I was pretty active in looking at the old "Dust-to-Dust" nonsense of CNW Marketing so this woke up some memories:

CNW Marketing tried to claim the life-cycle costs of a Prius versus a Hummer made the Hummer a cheaper ride than the Prius. It was bad enough his 'life time miles' numbers were totally bogus, it turned out there are actual researchers who do honest, life-cycle costs. Their papers pointed out the operational energy cost is typically 3x to 5x the production cost.

I also remember drinking a Dr. Pepper in 1974 in the break room and leaving it on the table to finish later. When I came back, someone had put their cigarette out in my can. I did dump the soda and that is a better understanding of the VW cheat-diesels.

The cost of keeping those cars on the road is measured in lung disorders, foul air, and cities that shutdown most if not all car because of what VW pumped out the tail pipe:


Bob Wilson

 

Judge warns Volkswagen diesel owners to stop stripping their cars of parts - Autoblog - whoops, on the part of the owner of the stripped car...

Judge Warns Volkswagen Diesel Owners To Stop Stripping Cars has an animated GIF.

 

imagine people purposely cheating the system, what is this world coming to? poor vdub.

 

I was speaking of allowing the cheater to being allowed to export to a market where the car meets the local regulations in its cheating state. The transport costs in pollution and resources will be less than building a new car that emits just as much for that market.

I take it that the fixed cars will be assigned to another bin then, and VW will have to balance them by selling even cleaner cars then?

 

All the more reason for them to start selling gobs of plug-ins, which they have proclaimed they are going to do. I hope that Brooklyn Bridge deal i have with them follows through.

.

 

The fundamental problem is the weight of the car when the agreement was ruled. Stripping parts off the car reduces the weight. It is the same as sneeking into a VW car lot and stealing parts off the cars.

Bob Wilson

 

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/09/business/volkswagen-diesel-emissions-investigation-settlement.html?_r=0

Oliver Schmidt, who led Volkswagen’s regulatory compliance office in the United States from 2014 to March 2015, was arrested on Saturday by investigators in Florida and is expected to be arraigned on Monday in Detroit, said the two people, a law enforcement official and someone familiar with the case.

After a study by West Virginia University first raised questions over Volkswagen’s diesel motors in early 2014, Mr. Schmidt played a central role in trying to convince regulators that excess emissions were caused by technical problems rather than by deliberate cheating. Much of the data presented to regulators was fabricated, officials of the California Air Resources Board have said.
. . .
Starting in late 2014, Mr. Schmidt and other Volkswagen officials repeatedly cited false technical explanations for the high emissions levels, the state attorneys general said. In 2015, Mr. Schmidt acknowledged the existence of a so-called defeat device that allowed Volkswagen cars to cheat emissions tests.
. . .
James Liang, a former Volkswagen engineer who worked for the company in California, pleaded guilty in September to charges that included conspiracy to defraud the federal government and violating the Clean Air Act. But Mr. Schmidt’s arrest brings the investigation into the executive ranks.​

Bob Wilson

 

Feds Arrest VW Exec -- And Implicate Higher-Ups In Wolfsburg, Too also has some more details.

 

Uh, let me clarify. I like the information, not what VW did. In a criminal case, it usually starts at the lowest level and then works its way up the 'food chain.'

Bob Wilson

 

Yes . . . . . best to squeal - plead out so the fed's can go after the kingpins ... the ones who pretend they didn't even know what's going on .
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It seems this thread title can be updated to $20B after the $4.3B settlement with the US Department for Justice investigation.

Also:
VW will face a £30 million lawsuit from 10,000 VW Group owners in the UK, each asking for £3,000 in compensation for buying vehicles involved in the Dieselgate emissions scandal.
Auto Express

 

The $17 billion is a theoretical "up to" value. The actual amount will depend upon how many owners sell back their cars and upon the actual individually calculated buy-back prices. VW is required to initially pay only a small fraction of the $17B into a special account from which reimbursements are to be paid, and thereafter periodically replenish the account to a certain minimum balance.

Also, I am not aware of any settlement stipulation that would prohibit VW from retrofitting or dismantling and reselling or recycling cars or car parts. If VW is clever enough, they might be able to recoup a major portion of the buy-back costs.

 

Well, if you add the $4.3B new settlement to the $15.5B they have committed to already..."the theoretical up to value" needs updating.
The application for a class action in the UK involves 10000 owners right now. If all 1.2 million affected owners in the UK were compensated with £3,000 each, it would cost the carmaker an estimated £3.6bn.

I do not think time is on their side...clever as they can be.

 

A thread title often stems from a snapshot in time . . . what we knew when the thread started. I agree that it makes sense to track the actual costs of the scandal but that gets into some pretty challenging areas. So let me suggest seeing if the annual stockholder report has a section or line item.

Stockholder reports are often 'delayed' because they follow, not lead, in the corporate expenses. Meant as a guide for investors, they tend to have the final numbers. Hopefully, this disaster has moved to 'the beginning of the end.'

The individuals who approved this fraud are being identified. Some will face criminal prosecution because they defrauded investors and buyers. Others, will face civil cases that will claw back some of their ill-gotten gains (and enrich many lawyers.)

It has made the slogan "clean diesel" into an epitaph that joins "clean coal" and "safe cigarettes."

Bob Wilson

 

Well, remember that BMW actually met the standards, and presumably GM has (considering the Colorado/Canyon diesel was subject to the far more rigorous testing post-Dieselgate).

It takes a lot of cash thrown at the emissions control equipment to meet them - $10k is the number that's been thrown around for the F-150 diesel - but it can be done.

(Mind you, throwing that $10k at a hybrid system would probably get you a PHEV now...)