As the VW Group pays out settlements with the hope of putting the Dieselgate fiasco behind it once and for all, there’s now trouble brewing from within. According to Reuters and Germany’s Bild newspaper, Porsche wants fellow VW Group brand Audi to pay it 220 million euros, or $234 million, in damages over costs related to diesel engines. Remember, it was Audi that admitted in November 2015 that its 3.0-liter diesel V6 engines were fitted with defeat devices, software that could sense when the car was undergoing emissions testing.
It then activated equipment that reduced emissions, only to turn it down during regular driving which put emissions above the legal limit. Not only did Audi outfit its cars with this engine, but so did VW and Porsche, specifically in the Cayenne SUV. When the truth came out, Porsche had no choice but to recall every single last one of those Cayenne diesels and make the necessary software changes. That wasn’t a cheap recall to do and, needless to say, it was outright embarrassing and reputation damaging. Now, Porsche officially wants compensation from Audi for the costs of retrofits, legal counseling and other customer care services.
Porsche told Reuters this is an internal VW Group issue and it won’t discuss details publically, but someone obviously leaked what’s going on over there in Germany. Not surprisingly, Audi also refused comment and referred all questions back to Porsche. So now it’s up to VW Group’s own lawyers to settle this internal financial dispute, but Porsche, based on its claims, appears to have every right to seek compensation from Audi. After all, it was Audi’s engine to begin with.
No comments:
Post a Comment