VW to change diesel technology, cut investments 

Carbon dioxide emissions are written on a Volkswagen Passat Diesel at the Frankfurt Car Show in Frankfurt

Volkswagen’s flagship brand will switch to new diesel emissions control technology in Europe and North America as well as cut a billion euros (USD1.1 billion) in annual investment spending.
VW brand head Herbert Diess made the announcement yesterday as the company struggles to overcome a scandal over the fact that some of its cars are equipped with computer software that let them evade U.S. emissions tests.
Diess said the company would change its diesel technology in Europe and North America and install systems that that use a mixture of the chemical substance urea and water to reduce diesel emissions. He said that change would come “as soon as possible.”
He said the company would extend its low-cost manufacturing techniques and reduce spending on investments.
The company also plans to turn the next version of its large Phaeton luxury sedan into an electric-only vehicle to demonstrate the company’s technological competence.
Volkswagen AG, which has other brands including Audi and Skoda, is facing a crisis after U.S. authorities said it evaded emissions checks on 482,000 vehicles. The company has set aside 6.5 billion euros ($7.3 billion) to cover the costs of recalls and fines. But analysts say the costs in terms of fines and lost sales will likely be considerably higher.
Earlier, the governor of Germany’s Lower Saxony state, which holds a minority stake in Volkswagen, said the automaker should have admitted earlier that it manipulated emissions data in diesel vehicles.
VW acknowledged the deception to U.S. regulators on Sept. 3, more than a year after researchers published a study showing the real-world emissions of two VW models were far higher than allowed.
Governor Stephan Weil told Lower Saxony’s state legislature yesterday that “this confession should clearly have come a great deal earlier — another serious mistake,” news agency dpa reported.
Lower Saxony holds a 20 percent stake and Weil sits on Volkswagen’s board of directors. He has said that the state’s representatives were “completely surprised” by the emissions scandal and vowed to work to protect jobs. David McHugh, Business Writer, Frankfurt, AP

german investor confidence down as vw adds to worries

a survey shows investor confidence in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has fallen for the seventh consecutive month as concern about the fallout from the Volkswagen scandal adds to worries about weak growth in emerging economies The Center for European Economic Research, known by its German acronym ZEW, said yesterday that its monthly index dropped to 1.9 points for October from 12.1 last month. That’s below the long-term average of 24.8 points and off a peak in March of 54.8. ZEW chief Clemens Fuest said that, while the VW emissions-rigging scandal and emerging market weakness have dampened the economic outlook, “the performance of the domestic economy is still good and the euro area economy continues to recover,” making a recession unlikely.