Volkswagen squirrels away €1bn contingency fund to pay emissions scandal legal fees May 2, 2019 Volkswagen has set aside €1bn (£858m) for the ongoing legal battle surrounding its emissions cheating scandal, it revealed this morning. Read more: Volkswagen to build Tesla-style gigafactories for electric car batteries Europe’s biggest car maker said the contingency fund had hit its operating profit in its first quarter trading update, adding that it expects the [...]
Leadership needs a rethink to keep up with the modern world April 16, 2019 The problems in leadership won’t have escaped you. They’re all around – from Oxfam and the Catholic Church in the not-for-profit world, to Bernie Madoff, Libor-rigging, and Volkswagen in the private sector. What do all these have in common? Was it a lack of information? No – in the age of data, all these organisations knew [...]
Former VW boss Martin Winterkorn faces criminal charges for emissions scandal April 15, 2019 German prosecutors have charged former chief executive of Volkswagen Martin Winterkorn with fraud for his alleged part in the car maker’s diesel emissions testing scandal. Read more: Volkswagen to build Tesla-style gigafactories for electric car batteries Today, just a stone’s throw away from the firm’s Wolfsburg base, prosecutors in Braunschweig said they were pressing charges [...]
You can’t blame Brexit for the British car industry’s woes April 15, 2019 Quizzed by Nick Hewer on Honda’s decision to close its Swindon plant earlier this month on BBC radio, I suggested that blaming Brexit for the demise of the Japanese auto makers factory with the loss of 3,500 jobs was not the whole story. Certainly, Brexit plays havoc with the vehicle industry’s sophisticated just-in-time supply chain. [...]
Volkswagen to build Tesla-style gigafactories as it ramps up electric car production April 15, 2019 Volkswagen is pushing its electric battery suppliers to build factories with at least one Gigawatt manufacturing capacity, according to its chief executive. Read more: Panasonic reviews plans for expansion of Tesla Gigafactory Joint venture partners such as South Korean firm SK Innovation (SKI) would need to build a so-called gigafactory because “anything below that amount [...]
AA: A sustainable recovery of its own? April 12, 2019 | City Talk After a decent start to 2019, our head of markets kicks the tyres after these uninspiring results. There is certainly a great deal going on under the bonnet at AA (LSE:AA.), although by its own admission there remains much to be done. One measure of progress is the number of contract wins the company has [...]
European car makers face €7.4bn bill to meet looming EU emissions rules April 3, 2019 The biggest car manufacturers in Europe are careering towards a €7.4bn crash in profits from the cost of meeting the EU’s emissions rules, UBS has warned. Regulations set to come into effect in 2021 will force car firms such as Volkswagen, BMW and Renault to produce no more than 95g of CO2 per kilometre, but [...]
Ford and Volkswagen to team up on development of next-generation pickup truck March 28, 2019 German car making giant Volkswagen has penned a deal to produce a pickup truck with US rival Ford, as discussions continue over extending an alliance between the two firms. Volkswagen and Ford announced last year they were in talks to work on a range of commercial vehicles, later branching out even further to include electric [...]
SEC sues Volkswagen over ‘massive fraud’ on US investors during emissions scandal March 15, 2019 Volkswagen perpetrated a “massive fraud” on US investors over its diesel emissions scandal, according to a major regulatory body now suing the firm. Read more: Volkswagen boss apologises for 'unfortunate' Nazi gaffe The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil complaint against the company overnight, claiming that the car manufacturer issued more than $13b [...]
Volkswagen boss apologises for ‘unfortunate’ Nazi gaffe, after evoking Holocaust slogan at company event March 14, 2019 Volkswagen’s chief executive has apologised after closely echoing a Nazi slogan in an attempt to emphasise the importance of growing profit. Speaking at a company event on Tuesday, Herbert Diess used to phrase “Ebit macht frei”, referring to the acronym Ebit, which stands for “earnings before interest and taxes”. Read more: IBM's Watson supercomputer launches [...]