CO2gate: Audi Puts Volkswagen In Even Deeper Trouble

Two weeks after a U.S. judge approved one of the biggest corporate settlements on record, Volkswagen is spinning its wheels, deeper in the morass than ever before. Over the weekend, the company confirmed what Forbes-readers knew since November 6, namely that “U.S. and European investigators are looking into fresh irregularities related to carbon dioxide emissions levels in certain Audi automatic-transmission vehicles,” as the Wall Street Journal writes. Dieselgate brought Volkswagen’s CEO Martin Winterkorn down. Fresh CO2gate can cost the job of Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, it might even lead to changes at the top of Germany’s regulator KBA.

Audi’s cheating was originally unveiled by Germany’s Bild am Sonntag tabloid, a paper at the forefront of defeat-device coverage. This weekend, Bild reports that Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Müller clashed with Stadler at a board meeting in Wolfsburg [German, paywall]. An angry Müller asked why he had to learn of Audi’s new cheater code from the media, the paper says, reporting that Stadler used the old Winterkorn defense that his engineers kept him in the dark about the swindle software. read more »

VW, Missouri AG Agree To Take Emissions Suit To Calif. MDL

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has agreed to merge his lawsuit over Volkswagen AG’s alleged practice of programming clean-diesel vehicles to evade emissions standards with more than 1,100 similar lawsuits pending in California, according to court filings Tuesday.

Volkswagen and its subsidiaries said it would be more efficient to include Missouri’s lawsuit with claims by plaintiffs in 11 other states that are pending before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, who approved the automaker’s $14.7 billion settlement with the federal government and consumers last month. read more »