Porsche stops making diesel cars after VW emissions scandal

The German carmaker Porsche says it will stop making diesel cars, and concentrate on petrol, electric and hybrid engines instead.

It follows a 2015 scandal in which its parent company, Volkswagen, admitted it had cheated emissions tests for diesel engines.

Diesel cars over a certain age have been banned in parts of some German cities in a bid to cut pollution. read more »

The Auto Industry’s VHS-or-Betamax Moment

The auto industry has a choice to make: Which language will cars speak when they talk to one another?

Until a couple of years ago, automakers agreed on one vehicle-to-vehicle communications platform, called dedicated short-range communications, or DSRC, based on the technology used for Wi-Fi. But some car companies have begun to favor a competing protocol, known as Cellular V2X, which is based on a next-generation version of the technology used by your mobile phone.

So far, the federal government has held back on enforcing a standard. A proposed rule mandating deployment of DSRC equipment in new vehicles has languished for nearly two years, and critics say the delay is making motorists less safe. read more »

The Dieselgate files: Who said what, and when Winterkorn knew

A court in Braunschweig is still untangling the Dieselgate whodunnit, investigating Martin Winterkorn for market manipulation and fraud. VW’s former boss says he didn’t know anything about cheat devices until September 2015, but statements suggest otherwise. Jens Hadler led the engine development department for the VW brand through 2011. He claims in a witness statement that not only was Mr. Winterkorn aware of different forms of cheat device, but that Mr. Winterkorn fired him for refusing to install some – and that was well before 2015. Brace, brace, for more painful revelations. read more »