AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/04 Report--

Four years after the Volkswagen Group was discredited by the "emissions fraud" incident, Volkswagen is still caught in a whirlpool of public opinion and suffered a large number of class action lawsuits from car owners. Volkswagen said a few days ago that it was negotiating compensation with a group of German victims who sued for excessive emissions from Volkswagen diesel vehicles, according to foreign media reports.

In 2018, Germany issued a new draft law that allows consumer rights groups to take defaulting companies to court on behalf of consumers and bear their litigation costs. In September 2019, a German consumer organization formally filed a complaint with the court, on behalf of tens of thousands of German consumers, demanding financial compensation.

German car owners have also been affected by the belief that Volkswagen "cheated" emissions regulations by installing illegal "cheating devices" on diesel vehicles.

Germany's Volkswagen Group lawyer claimed at the time, "up to now, there are still thousands of customers driving Volkswagen." We believe that Volkswagen has not caused any damage, so there is no reason for this lawsuit. "

In response to the recent negotiations, consumer groups said that the negotiations are still at an early stage and there is no guarantee that a settlement will be reached. Both consumer groups and Volkswagen claim that their goals are to provide customers with pragmatic solutions. At the same time, the negotiation process will be kept secret.

The Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal was revealed in 2015, when Volkswagen admitted to controlling the software of some diesel engines to run only during regulatory tests and shut down during normal driving, thus evading emission testing. Over the past four years, Volkswagen has been involved in a number of lawsuits and executives have been charged with jailing. so far, Volkswagen has lost as much as 30 billion euros (234.8 billion yuan) due to emission gates, and related losses and compensation continue.

According to Volkswagen, about 11 million vehicles worldwide are equipped with cheating software for diesel emissions tests.

Huge financial compensation, a large number of class-action lawsuits by car owners, recalls of tens of millions of diesel vehicles and the far-reaching impact of scandals are undoubtedly extremely destructive to Volkswagen. Nearly 100000 car owners in the UK recently filed a class action lawsuit against Volkswagen Group, demanding that the group be held responsible for "emissions cheating" and "misleading consumers", according to foreign media reports. Earlier, Volkswagen Group reached a settlement agreement with Australian car owners on the "emission gate", under which Volkswagen will pay compensation to each affected car owner, with a total compensation expected to be up to 127 million Australian dollars, or about 616 million yuan. The fine set a record for Australian officials to impose fines for violations of the Consumer Law. Previously, Volkswagen Group has reached billions of dollars in settlement agreements with car owners in the United States and Canada.

Volkswagen has made various efforts to get rid of the influence of the scandal. Volkswagen Group has expressed its determination to make a complete transition to new energy vehicles, which plans to invest 60 billion euros in new energy vehicles, electric travel and digital between 2020 and 2024. At the same time, Volkswagen also announced that it will launch 75 all-electric models and 60 hybrid models by 2029.

Volkswagen's fraud to cover up excessive emissions has caused it heavy losses and paid a price for it. The continuous fermentation of the mass emission door will be a long-lasting "nightmare" for the public.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat