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There've been a slew of new developments in the VW scandal in the last 24 hours, and then nosotros're rounding them upward in a single mail. Yesterday, VW announced that it would begin equipping all diesel vehicles in Europe and N America with the urea injection engineering known equally AdBlue in the The states. This announcement refers but to vehicles sold with diesel engines going forwards; VW has even so to unveil a comprehensive plan for how information technology will set up all of the various US and European cars that have been adulterous for the past 6 years.

In improver, some had speculated that the problem only impacted vehicles with the EA 189 engine. We at present know that to be simulated, as VW's 2016 models all included cheat devices, too. Meanwhile, the unabridged European market has been defenseless rampantly inflating real-world results thanks to regulatory capture on an epic scale.

The primary thrust of VW'south announcement, however, wasn't nearly its sudden need for AdBlue, a engineering information technology has previously eschewed in many of its vehicles, just a "reorientation of the diesel strategy… and the development of a standardized electric architecture for rider cars and calorie-free commercial vehicles."

VW-Phaeton-0

VW has spent millions of euros on the Phaeton, despite abysmal sales

That's right. VW is going electric. Surely this has nothing to practice with the fact that the European Investment Bank (EIB) is investigating whether it can call due $ii billion in loans it granted VW to develop low-emission engines. The company wants to bring plug-in hybrids to market with greater range and develop loftier-volume electric vehicles that tin bulldoze up to 300km (180 miles) on a charge, and push forward into fuel types such every bit CNG. As part of this push button, VW volition bring a new high-stop Phaeton to market place, as a fully electric car with a new long-distance capability.

Call it the Tesla strategy: VW is going to introduce an all-electric luxury sedan as a way to defray the costs of evolution, while simultaneously trying to push button the envelope on hybrids and vehicles with smaller range. It could even pose a threat to the upstart Tesla at some point in the hereafter, assuming VW's brand presence doesn't go into a tailspin in the The states market place.

Adulterous scandal spreads, new North American head quits

Every bit for the adulterous that kicked off this unabridged debacle, the scandal has spread in two unlike dimensions. First, new reports in the German magazine Spiegel claims that more than 30 managers have at present been implicated in the development and management of the cheating scandal, with dozens to be suspended every bit the investigation continues. This blows holes in the incredibly dubious narrative VW avant-garde to Congress final week, in which it claimed that this piece of work was done by a scattering of rogue engineers. Such claims were always worthless — software engineers don't, as a rule, just independently decide to write cheat code without existence told to do so.

Speaking of software engineers, VW has revealed to the Associated Press that the 2016 models it pulled from certification from the US market comprise more than adulterous software. In this case, the machine contains an "auxiliary emissions control device" that operates differently than the defeat device present in 2009 – 2015 models. The 2016 cars contained software that would heat a pollution catalyst more speedily, improving its functioning.

The problem hither isn't that VW wanted to meliorate the performance of its vehicles, but that the strategy could defeat the use of so-called "cold start" emissions tests, which is when diesel vehicles emit the near particulates. Devices that clean the exhaust at this stage are subject to regulatory approval, and VW apparently hadn't bothered to get information technology. This raises serious questions about how the device is intended to piece of work (and in which scenarios).

Winfried Vahland -- Love child of Jeffrey Jones and Brent Spiner?

Winfried Vahland — Love child of Jeffrey Jones and Brent Spiner?

Finally, company veteran Winfried Vahland, the man intended to take over VW's entire North American functioning, resigned today. He'd been on the job less than three weeks. VW is reeling from its self-inflicted harm and planning pregnant price cutting and layoffs. Reuters reports that the total cost of the recalls and repairs could superlative 35 billion euros, or just over $40 billion at electric current exchange rates. Auction values of diesel vehicles take reportedly already fallen every bit much as xiii%.

If you're not tired of VW later all this, Wired has an excellent slice on how VW's corporate fraud and utter condone for proper or upstanding management could destroy its US dealers. Over the past few years, the company's 650 US dealerships take spent millions on renovations and company-recommend luxuries. Now, that entire network is in jeopardy, with new automobile sales banned. VW vehicles have struggled in the US, simply so-called "make clean diesel" models were one of the brilliant spots. It'due south no longer legal to sell those vehicles new and the 2016 lineup has been yanked completely, which means many dealerships have merely lost their lifelines. The dealerships themselves have already bought the cars on the lot — cars they can't sell.

I'one thousand not particularly sympathetic to automobile dealerships. Information technology's an primitive system that exists to justify huge repair bills, and dealers have actively worked to forestall companies similar Tesla from selling cars in new and innovative ways. There's a divergence, however, between thinking that the dealership system is primitive and outdated, and specifically attacking the individual businesses that people have built for decades. VW's dealers had no style of knowing that their corporate partner was engaged in global fraud, simply thus far, the company hasn't taken much noun action to make amends.