Volkswagen currently has two partnerships with Chinese auto companies. (Photo : Reuters)
Even if the emission crisis had wiped out $34 billion from Volkswagen's value as shares plunged up to 30 percent, Hans Dieter Poetsch, finance chief of the German carmaker, believes that Volkswagen can overcome the crisis.
But he admits that it threatens the existence of the vehicle-manufacturing giant after it disclosed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in September that almost 5 million Volkswagen diesel vehicles in the U.S. were rigged to pass emissions tests.
Poestch is expected to be named chairman of Volkswagen this week, reports Welt Am Sonntag.
In 2008, when Volkswagen engineers discovered that the new diesel engines they developed at a big cost to the company would not pass EPA standards, the installed software that would allow the cars to pass tests. The 5 million affected cars are just in the U.S. The total number of vehicles involved globally is 11 million.
Bild reports that the software came from Continental, a major supplier. However, Continental denies it is aware of any contaminated software and says it is not in a position to measure emissions.
But it is not just Volkswagen's reputation that was damaged by the emissions scandal. Extremetech reports that it also negatively affects the diesel passenger car industry.
Last week, German prosecutors started investigating former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn following complaints that he should be held responsible for the scandal. In the U.S., the Justice Department had started a criminal investigation of Volkswagen because software tampering breaches the Clean Air Act, reports the New York Times.
