Volkswagen will cut its spending by 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) this year and «strictly prioritize» investments as it shores up its finances to deal with its emissions-rigging scandal, CEO Matthias Mueller said Friday after a board meeting.Volkswagen will cut its spending by 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) next year and «strictly prioritize» investments as it shores up its finances to deal with its emissions-rigging scandal, CEO Matthias Mueller in the end of last year. This week Volksagen is sued in the U.S. District Court in Detroit,
Heavvy Fines
Volkswagen’s shares were 3.1 percent lower at 122.45 euros ($133.05) in Frankfurt trading on Tuesday morning — easily the worst performer on the DAX index of blue chip stocks, which was 0.4 percent higher overall. The Justice Department’s move on Monday potentially exposes the company to billions in fines for clean air violations. Volkswagen set aside 6.7 billion euros to deal with the costs of recalling and fixing cars after the scandal erupted in September, but the ultimate costs to the company are expected to be considerably higher. A raft of private class-action lawsuits filed by angry VW owners also is pending.
Postphones Design Center
Federal authorities are suing Volkswagen over emissions-cheating software found in nearly 600,000 vehicles sold in the United States. The Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday filed a civil complaint against the German automaker in U.S. District Court in Detroit, reports associated Press.What we definitely won’t do is make cuts at the expense of our future,» said Mueller. Among other things, he said Volkswagen would postpone the building of a new design center in Wolfsburg and the introduction of an all-electric Phaeton sedan, and review other projects.
A piece of Software
«We’re driving cautiously over the coming months, but we know where we want to go and we want to ensure that the Volkswagen company comes out of the current situation strengthened,» he told reporters in a short statement, without taking questions, after the 20-member board met at company headquarters.Volkswagen in September admitted that almost 500,000 of its four-cylinder diesel cars in the U.S. had cheated on emissions tests thanks to a piece of software. A total of 11 million cars worldwide have the software, though it has not yet been confirmed that it helped cheat on emissions tests outside the U.S., reports Associated Press)
