Audi cheating uncovered – “Customers and investors feel betrayed”
Rupert Stadler was already clear that the day would be difficult. Around 1000 shareholders waited for the CEO when he was at 10.30 in the AudiForum Ingolstadt joined the lectern. He wanted to talk about the future, but at the beginning he had to apologize again. Stadler had to admit that Audi another 66,000 cars of the A6 and A7 series because of manipulated engine controls must call back.
And so the Audi boss deviated spontaneously from his speech manuscript. “I regret the uncertainty for our customers,” said Stadler. It was “a serious work error at the level of expertise”. In the affected cars work a software component in the engines, which had failed to remove. The affected cars are now to be converted. The deliveries have to be stopped for weeks,
“Our team is working hard on reconditioning,” says Stadler. But it is clear: “The diesel crisis is not yet complete for us” ends Stadler his penitentiary speech.
Diesel fraud software: Audi writes letter to dealers – delivery of models A6 and A7 still stopped for weeks
In fact, the horror surrounding the Annual General Meeting is great. In early May, Audi discovered in the in-house inspections the software code that throttles the emission control when the cleaning fluid “Adblue” is running out. This function is already known from older cheating diesels.
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The fatal realization: For the first time relatively new Euro 6 engines are affected, which Audi has always considered safe. At the end of last week the Kraftfahrbundesamt and the VWSupervisory Board informs shareholders and customers but not yet.
The reason: allegedly had to be clarified internally, how many cars are actually affected and if, for example, also delivered to the US, where Audi is after a comparison with the authorities under special observation.
But the day before the Annual General Meeting, Audi slipped the interpretation sovereignty out of his hands. After first press reports Audi had to confirm the sales stop of Audi A6 and A7 models with three-liter diesel engines. In a letter to its dealers, the group speaks of a “necessary adjustment of certain emission strategies”.
Diesel scandal: New fraud software discovered – Audi pulls the emergency brake at A6 and A7
“This is the temporary climax that hurts, even us,” says Helmut Kroll of the Schutzgemeinschaft der Kapitalanleger. After three years of diesel crisis, it’s time to finally draw a line. “How can it be that something like this comes to light one day before the Annual General Meeting?” Asks Andreas Preis of the Protection Association for Securities. “If you do not work it will go on forever”.
Above all, Price accuses the Supervisory Board of having failed. Above all, he encounters the appointment of the supervisory board, which is made exclusively by the parent company in Wolfsburg. Reservations especially against price Hans Dieter Pötsch and Herbert Diess, are under investigation for market manipulation. “I can understand, if Mr. Pötsch wants to sit here with his old buddies, but that does not make any sense!” Shouts the shareholder protector.
The debate continued until the afternoon. The discharge of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board is considered safe: Volkswagen controls 99.55 percent of the voting rights.
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