VW: restoring confidence

Can Volkswagen recover from the corrosive effects of Dieselgate? Andrew Cave analyses what went wrong, what the company is doing to repair the damage and which direction it will now take.
A year ago, the Volkswagen scandal was the world’s biggest car crash and some motor industry experts thought the company had no future.
America’s Environmental Protection Agency found that the company had intentionally programmed turbo-charged, direct-injection diesel engines to dodge strict limits on nitrogen oxide emissions. Up to 11 million VW diesel cars—Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat models as well as the Audi A3—were therefore emitting noxious fumes at up to 40 times the maximum US levels.
Dubbed “Dieselgate”, regulators acros
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