In the dispute over possible compensation for hundreds of thousands of diesel customers of Volkswagen Show stock market chart Auto expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer expects a comparison in the spring. “It will certainly take two or three months until the comparison is complete in all its facets, but the time is manageable,” said the professor from the University of Duisburg-Essen to the German Press Agency in Hanover. “I can’t imagine VW pulling back now, so the deal comes.”
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil, who has also been on the VW supervisory board since 2013, had previously been more reluctant to comment on the schedule. “The talks are just beginning, it is still completely open how long they will last and what result they will reach,” said the SPD politician on Friday.
VW had long been skeptical about a comparison. The Braunschweig Higher Regional Court, however, asked the company to consider the talks. On Thursday, VW and the Federal Association of Consumer Centers (vzbv) then announced that they were talking about a comparison in the model procedure. The plaintiffs hope after that VW exhaust scandal mainly because of a loss in value of their cars for damages.
However, the exact number of consumers registered for the lawsuit is controversial. According to VW, in addition to around 470,000 registrations, there were 77,000 deregistrations that the Federal Office of Justice had not yet fully processed. There could also be double entries and registrations, behind which there are several diesel drivers.
Subsequent registrations as plaintiffs in the model process are no longer possible. However, the FDP parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Michael Theurer, had asked VW to compensate all affected VW owners – regardless of whether they participated in the model process or not.
Dudenhöffer described this as unrealistic. “VW needs predictability, otherwise many dubious cases could make it difficult to differentiate,” he said. In his opinion, the auto company will therefore concentrate on the parties to the model lawsuit.
For the Wolfsburgers there is also an opportunity for a new start. “Now that VW is selling the ID.3, a completely new era is beginning at VW, you should finally” work off “the dark shadow of the past and make peace between consumers and the company,” said Dudenhöffer. With the electric car ID.3 as the flagship, Volkswagen wants to present itself more environmentally friendly than before. The entire vehicle fleet of the group is to be CO2 neutral by 2050.
The diesel scandal is likely to accompany VW even longer, even in court. In addition to the model trial in Braunschweig, there were around 60,000 pending lawsuits nationwide at the turn of the year, and proceedings are still ongoing abroad. In addition, a billion-dollar investor process in Braunschweig is making slow progress. The question is whether VW has informed the markets about the exhaust gas manipulations in good time.
Compared to the shareholders’ complaints, Dudenhöffer sees peace with the drivers as the “much more important good”. “In my opinion, the” new “VW would step out of the shadows of the past with this comparison,” he said, adding: “It would be logical to hold the old management – ie Mr. Winterkorn – more accountable from the VW side.” Ex-VW boss Martin Winterkorn is charged with fraud, among other things. A date for the start of the process was not yet in sight.
dpa / mh