Head of VW's Audi arrested in Germany over diesel scandal
German authorities arrested the head of Volkswagen's luxury arm Audi on Monday, the most senior company official so far to be detained over the carmaker's emissions test cheating scandal.
Munich prosecutors, who earlier this month widened their probe into Audi, said Rupert Stadler was being held due to fears he might hinder their investigation into the scandal, plunging Volkswagen into a leadership crisis.
News of the arrest comes as Volkswagen's (VW) new group CEO Herbert Diess is trying to introduce a new leadership structure, which includes Stadler, to speed up a shift toward electric vehicles in the wake of its "dieselgate" troubles.
Also at BBC, DW, The Register, and CNN.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @07:28PM (3 children)
Who believes that the Munich prosecutor is really going after Audi? European car makers co-opted the whole EU government so they could peddle their Diesels with favorable emissions rules and no enforcement. Germans are good at hiding corruption, but don't forget that Helmut Kohl, the current Chancellor's mentor, orchestrated slush funds and suitcases of cash.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 18 2018, @08:27PM
Suitcases of cash are preferable to entire planeloads of dollars or Euros.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Tuesday June 19 2018, @04:56PM (1 child)
First off, there's no such thing as an EU government. There's the Council of Ministers [the European Council](where the real power lies), the Commission (the administrative & study arm) and the Parliament. The main body of law making happens through so-called Directives, which are (more or less strict) guidelines for local [nation-level] law making, often with sunset terms added to them.
Secondly, the root cause of the diesel emissions scandal traces back to 1999 when Audi engineers eliminated a noise problem in 3.0 litre engines by injecting extra fuel into the engine on ignition. This caused excess emissions that needed to be hidden during laboratory tests -- hence the software 'fix'. Whether that has much of an impact on the general level of emissions during driving, I can't tell, but I could see an engineer thinking that it wouldn't matter much.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Tuesday June 19 2018, @05:01PM
And thirdly, if European carmakers co-opted any government, than it was for making emission levels ever more strict -- so as to force consumers to buy a new car regularly.