Volkswagen

Volkswagen has become one of the world’s biggest carmakers with a full range of makes and models, including highly engineered vehicles that compete with the world’s best. Now it is returning to its roots with a simpler people’s car, only this time the people are the teeming billions in China, India and other emerging markets.

Volkswagen India’s automotive offerings are actually over delivering for the Indian market, according to Steffen Knapp, director of passenger cars, Volkswagen India. As told to the Economic Times (ET), the company will now be looking to develop more region-specific offerings from sub brand Skoda Auto.

Volkswagen on Friday said it was setting aside another 2.5 billion euros to deal with the fallout from the "dieselgate" scandal in the United States as its efforts to recall tainted cars there proved to be more "complex" than expected.

The latest provisions bring the total sum set aside by VW to deal with fines and costs over the diesel scandal to €25.1bn.

The EU consumer authorities and the European Commission on September 7 sent a joint letter to the CEO of Volkswagen urging the group to swiftly repair all cars affected by the “dieselgate” scandal, the Commission said, adding this is part of a coordinated action by EU consumer authorities to make sure that the Volkswagen group respects consumer law in the aftermath of the scandal and is proactive towards the consumers concerned.

The Volkswagen Group has become the world’s top-selling car company for 2016, despite making headlines for all the wrong reasons – chiefly its dieselgate emissions cheating scandal.

VW has reported global annual sales of 10.31 million vehicles for 2016, overtaking Toyota’s annual total of 10.17 million, ending the Japanese company’s global sales hegemony of recent years.

A spokesman for VW said: "2016 was a very challenging year for us." The company "made strides in resolving and overcoming the diesel crisis" and initiated fundamental change in the company’s long-term strategy, he said.

The former CEO of Volkswagen Martin Winterkorn will receive, as of 2017, a pension of approximately € 1.2 million per year, or € 3,100 per day, despite the dieselgate, as reported today by the German newspaper Bild.
The Winterkorn contract, forced to step back because of emissions scandal that ran over the Vw in the US and then in Europe, is officially expired at the end of 2016, and former top manager, who has 69 years, has entitled to a hefty pension.

Volkswagen AG is expected to announce a sweeping restructuring of its embattled VW passenger car brand that includes up to 30,000 job cuts over the next five years and a shift toward electric vehicles and new digital mobility businesses, a source told Reuters Friday.

The announcement is expected to come later in the day at a news conference. It foresees €3.7 billion ($3.9 billion) in annual savings at VW’s namesake brand, which will involve 23,000 job cuts in Germany alone, another source said.

Volkswagen has reached an agreement with 652 American dealers for losses incurred due to the emissions scandal, the so-called Dieselgate. The Deutch company has not specified the amount of the transaction "in cash" and probably until "late September" will work to develop "details" of the cartel which in any case must be examined by a Court of San Francisco.

For about a year the American dealers were forbidden to sell the VW diesel cars manufactured during the period affected by the scandal. The company, in a statement, confirmed that the agreement provides "cash payments and other benefits that will be granted to retailers."

The Bavarian Government will cause to Volkswagen. The fall in the price of the automaker’s shares in Wurzburg, it said in a statement, determined by dieselgate damages the Bavarian pension funds. Bavaria’s state pension fund for civil servants lost as much as 700,000 euros ($ 783,580.00) after VW shares plunged in the wake of the Sept. 18 revelation by U.S. regulators of the carmaker’s manipulation.