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This week has been awfully frantic for the auto-industry and all the while becoming an infamous mark in history of cars and clean air. Volkswagen is a German car manufacturer known for their models the Golf, Beetle and Passat. Not long ago it surpassed Toyota in becoming the world’s largest automaker. Its parent company the Volkswagen group has many ties in the auto industry owning big names such as Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche and Bugatti.
A few days ago the company was caught cheating an emission testing installing software to fake results. Having lots of control over the industry and being the most influential only complicates the matter as their stock plummets and the German economy threatened.
Testing a car and its engine to ensure it meets the emission standard is commonplace prior to distribution. Since 2008 Volkswagen has sold 11 million rigged diesel cars. Customers purchasing them thinking they were green and efficient were enraged it find pumping out 40 times more pollutant than the standard. Only after 7 years did they get caught by researchers in the U.S studying clean diesel cars outside the lab to find the numbers didn’t add up. The software detected when it was being tested and quickly readjusted engine settings to reduce the nasty exhaust.
Volkswagen confessed after a year of being confronted previously stating the irregular emission levels were mere technical difficulties. Winterkorn said he was deeply sorry however stated him not knowing the scandal occurred. He resigned his position as CEO. The board called upon Matthias Muller who had been the CEO of Porsche previously, to be his successor.
Volkswagen has pitched in 6.5 billion euro to help clear to mess and repair vehicles with defect devices. The company could face a penalty of $37,500 per vehicle sold and with 482,000 diesel cars sold in the U.S the total nears $18 billion in fines. Yet it doesn’t end there as investigations will look to uncover the truth behind the scandal.
Volkswagen might recover or it might not. The stock drop is certainly a scare to investors and the German government has warned VW that it had not only destroyed its own reputation but for Germany as a whole.