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> That also answers why the German government is giving them some leeway here: it's not exactly in their interest to kill Volkswagen. While the federal governm
by dom0 9y ago
> That also answers why the German government is giving them some leeway here: it's not exactly in their interest to kill Volkswagen.
While the federal government does not have a direct stake (apart from all the tax euros), the fine state of Lower Saxony holds a 20 % share (which actually causes the MP and his economics minister to always be on the board of directors).
- alkonaut 9y agoThe country has a huge stake regardless since they likely pay unemployment benefits if they were to go under etc.
- justinclift 9y agoInteresting. Does that mean they could have been aware of the problem (from being on the board), before it became public knowledge?
- icebraining 9y agoWhy would prosecuting the executives kill WV, though?
- madez 9y agoIf VW is forced to make all regulations-breaching cars to be compliant and compensate the owner for down-time and loss in fuel-efficiency or performance, that might mean the end to VW. VW is touched softly, just like Intel, for example. I think both the car and the IC industries should be more regulated, and the regulations should be effectively enforced.
- icebraining 9y agoAs far as I know, they did have to make the cars compliant. At least my colleague, who had an affected Skoda, got it "fixed" for free, including a temporary replacement car.
- alkonaut 9y agoIf there was a demand that the "fixed" cars were actually tested and were now under the limit while not losing more than say 5% in economy or power (or else owners would have to be compensated) it would likely find that the cars fail one or more of these requirements. I believe it's now a middle ground: cars lost "only" about 5-10% performance/fuel eco, and they are still only half way to the NOx limit.