Latest news with #Dieselgate
Top Gear
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Porsche Macan Turbo
Events (or rather, an event) rather overtook whatever initial observations I had about the latest addition to the TG fleet, a Porsche Macan. Because, on the day this orange Turbo was turning up at Top Gear HQ in the UK, at Porsche HQ in Germany the company was holding its annual press conference. Now ordinarily, end-of-year financial results don't do much beyond revealing revenues and returns and sending me to sleep, but slowing sales in China, a slower-than-expected transition phase to electric, and supplier disruptions, have rocked the boat for most premium brands in Europe. Advertisement - Page continues below For Porsche, that meant two board members (in charge of sales and marketing, and finance and IT) were replaced earlier this year, while at the press conference it confirmed it was working on a new SUV with combustion and hybrid powertrains. Which might not seem newsworthy at all, but when's the last time since Dieselgate any manufacturer announced an all-new model that wasn't either totally electric, or able to be electric alongside conventional combustion? Thing is, when Porsche made the decision to make the second-generation Macan electric-only (aka a lifetime ago in R&D terms) everything pointed to mass EV uptake. But in the intervening years, the public hasn't embraced electric like governments and manufacturers had planned, hoped and increasingly prayed. Moreover, while the electric Taycan was a new model that sat alongside the Panamera, the second-generation Macan has replaced a top-selling petrol model (80k+ sales most years, usually neck-and-neck with the Cayenne) with one that's less accessible. Less accessible because it's £10k pricier, and less accessible because all those urban-dwelling owners without off-street parking are going to find getting energy into it more difficult than filling up with petrol. The solution is another SUV, which almost certainly will share its underneath bits with Audi's Q5 – just as the Mk1 Macan did. Why? Because Audi has just launched another generation of combustion Q5 (on a new platform Porsche will have access to) and a new, similar-sized electric Q6 e-tron (which shares a different, electric-only platform with the Mk2 Macan). Advertisement - Page continues below It's what Porsche, in retrospect, should have done – but hindsight is a wonderful thing and a Q5/Q6-type dual strategy would have been costly, so Porsche hedged on an electric future when that's what legislation and public sentiment seemed to be leaning toward. The problem is, reversing the decision will now cost even more. There'll be a drop in annual electric Macan sales, plus a combustion-Macan-sized gap in its sales portfolio until the end of the decade, and the R&D spend of hundreds of millions of pounds to fill said void. And then to top it all off, Porsche probably can't call the new SUV 'Macan' as well, purely to save face. Let's leave all that now though, because the here and now sees this Porsche Macan on the Top Gear fleet. And whatever turmoil exists around it, it's here on merit, as both the winner of our 'Best EV Sports SUV' category in the 2024 Top Gear EV Awards, and as our 'Performance SUV of the Year' in the 2024 Top Gear Awards. You don't get two such gongs without being properly good, so we're expecting to be impressed in the coming months…
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Dieselgate pollution killed 16,000 people in UK, study estimates
The excess pollution emitted as a result of the Dieselgate scandal has killed about 16,000 people in the UK and caused 30,000 cases of asthma in children, according to a new analysis. A further 6,000 premature deaths will occur in coming years without action, the researchers said. The Dieselgate scandal erupted in 2015 when diesel cars were found to be emitting far more toxic air pollution on the roads than when they passed regulatory tests, due to the use of illegal 'defeat devices'. Large fines and compulsory recalls of vehicles to remove or disable the defeat devices took place in the US. But experts say the UK and most EU countries have lagged far behind, leading to devastating impacts on health, and urge immediate action. Many millions of highly polluting diesel vehicles remain on the roads in the UK and EU. The analysis estimated the impact of only the excess pollution released due to the defeat devices, not the total emissions from the cars. In the UK, these excess emissions had led to 800,000 days of sick leave and a total economic burden due to deaths and poor health of £96bn by 2024. Across the UK and EU combined, the fallout from Dieselgate has included about 124,000 early deaths and economic damage of €760bn (£637bn), the study estimated. Without action, a further 81,000 premature deaths and €430bn are projected by 2040, by which time most Dieselgate vehicles will no longer be in use. 'Our calculations reveal the widespread and devastating health impacts of excessive diesel emissions – thousands of lives cut short, countless children developing asthma, and an immense burden of chronic illness,' said Dr Jamie Kelly, at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea), which conducted the research for environmental law group ClientEarth. 'This is a crisis with a long and lingering legacy,' he said. 'Without action, these impacts will stretch far into the future, affecting generations to come. Governments have a responsibility to break this cycle.' ClientEarth lawyer Emily Kearsey said: 'The scale of the UK government's response has been completely disproportionate to the public health crisis that we're facing. Auto manufacturers have been trying to sweep the Dieselgate scandal under the carpet for too long. The UK government has the opportunity to finally stand up for people's health and hold polluters accountable.' Jemima Hartshorn, of campaign group Mums for Lungs, said: 'Millions of diesel cars on our roads are still emitting toxically high levels of pollution and it's costing our health, especially the health of our children.' Defeat devices have been illegal since before the Dieselgate scandal but in 2020 new UK law placed a duty on the government to investigate vehicles suspected of using defeat devices. New powers in 2021 enabled the government to create laws that could force manufacturers to recall vehicles on environmental grounds. These powers have yet to be used, although it is believed a consultation is planned. In 2023, ClientEarth sent a legal complaint to the government based on the strong evidence that many vehicles using defeat devices remained on the road. After this, the government said in 2024 that it was investigating 47 different car models under 20 brands by 11 manufacturers, and that more would follow. In the US, regulators fined Volkswagen £1.45bn and the company also had to pay $5bn into pollution mitigation funds for its role in Dieselgate. It was also forced to fix the cars or buy them back. In contrast, the UK has imposed no fines on any car company nor forced any recalls. 'In the UK, and the EU on the whole, there's just not been anywhere near the same level of accountability,' said Kearsey. Instead, individual consumers have been left to fight for financial compensation from manufacturers through the UK courts, leaving the excessively polluting vehicles on our roads. Almost 2 million consumer claims are now being pursued in the high court against 18 auto-manufacturers alleged to have used prohibited defeat devices. In 2022, Volkswagen agreed to pay £193m to 91,000 drivers in England and Wales. Some car manufacturers have undertaken voluntary recalls to fix the vehicles but public information on this is limited and only a small fraction of affected vehicles are likely to have been covered. The Crea report used data on car fleets and real-world emissions and modelling to estimate the impact of the excess emissions due to Dieselgate. The models have been widely used in scientific research and the relationships between nitrogen dioxide and small particle pollution and ill health and deaths were taken from published studies. The analysis considered emissions that were more than double the legal limit as excess and almost certainly due to the use of defeat devices. It covered such diesel vehicles approved from 2009. A stricter real-world emissions test was fully implemented in the EU in 2021. Prof Suzanne Bartington, at the University of Birmingham, UK, said it was clear that the toxic emissions led to early deaths and disease. She said a more conservative approach would not have added the premature deaths from NO2 and from small particles together, as it is unclear to what extent each contributes to mortality individually. 'We tend to use the higher of either estimate,' she said. That approach would give an estimate of 13,000 Dieselgate deaths in the UK by 2024, rather than the Crea central estimate of 16,000. On Monday, a regional court in Germany sentenced four former VW managers for fraud, with two sent to prison and two given suspended sentences. A Department for Transport spokesperson said: 'Defeat devices are illegal, misleading for drivers and can have negative health impacts on the public. We routinely and robustly check vehicles against emission standards and acted quickly to set up an investigation on this matter. We will work with industry to resolve any issues identified.'
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Volkswagen executives get prison time in 'Dieselgate' scandal
Punishments were handed out for Volkswagen (VWAGY) executives involved in the emissions-cheating scandal that rocked the auto industry a decade ago. Two former executives, Jens Hadler and Hanno Jelden, are heading to prison, while two others received suspended sentences. The case slowly ground through the European legal system, finally culminating on Monday with a panel of judges in Braunschweig, Germany, a city near Volkswagen's headquarters. It took four hours to read the sentences for the guilty. Presiding Judge Christian Schütz said the group of defendants acted as a 'gang' and described their actions as 'particularly serious' fraud. Volkswagen has admitted that some of its engineers installed software in diesel-powered vehicles that caused the cars to recognize when they were being tested for emissions and adjust their emissions to meet the standards. A criminal court filing in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan in 2017 accused six Volkswagen executives of various crimes, including conspiracy. 'Purpose of the conspiracy was for to 'unlawfully enrich VW and themselves by, among other things, A) deceiving U.S. regulators in order to obtain necessary Certificates to sell diesel vehicles n the United States, B) selling VW vehicles to U.S. customers knowing that those vehicles were intentionally designed to detect, evade, and defeat U.S. emissions standards.' The criminal complaint says the conspiracy began at least as early as May 2006 and continued through 2015. Because the VW executives are based overseas and have not been extradited to the United States, the criminal proceedings have been on hold. The legal action, instead, has been in Europe where over 30 Volkswagon employees have been caught up in what has been dubbed the 'Dieselgate' scandal In 2015, when the scandal first began to unravel, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that nearly 500,000 Volkswagen cars sold in the country between 2009 and 2015 had 'defeat device' software installed, which is designed to detect when a car is being tested for emissions and lower them accordingly. Meanwhile, out on the road, these cars released up to 40 times more pollution than allowed by the rules. Shareholders largely shrugged off the court action. Shares were trading 2% higher at opening today. —Jason Karaian contributed to this article. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Market Online
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Market Online
Futures Rally on Tariff Delay Boost
Canadian index futures jumped Tuesday, riding a global equity rally after U.S. President Donald Trump hit pause on planned tariffs targeting EU imports, easing investor jitters and fueling risk appetite. Market Numbers (Futures) TSX :Up ( 0.80%) 26,281.58TSXV: Up (1.62%) 697.77DOW: Up (1.39%) 42,252.00NASDAQ: Up (1.59%) 21,305.75 FTSE: Up (0.80%) 8,787.37 In the Headlines: Four ex-Volkswagen execs have been convicted of fraud over the Dieselgate scandal, nearly a decade after the emissions cheating came to light. Jail time and suspended sentences mark a sharp turn in one of auto's biggest corporate scandals. And,The OECD flags Canada's economic growth at risk, calling out weak productivity and sky-high housing prices as major hurdles. Against a backdrop of trade uncertainty and punishing U.S. tariffs, the country faces mounting pressure to act fast. Currencies Update: (Futures) The Canadian dollar faded by 0.22% to $0.7247 U.S., still increasing by 0.11% to $0.6405 to the Euro, and Bitcoin sheds 0.15% to $150,891.30. Commodities: (Futures) Natural Gas: Up (11.73%), 3.72WTI: Down (0.51%), 61.19Gold: Down (1.52%), 3,291.90 Copper: Up (0.92%) 6.01 To stay up-to-date on all of your market news head to Join the discussion: Find out what everybody's saying check out the rest of Stockhouse's stock forums and message boards. The material provided in this article is for information only and should not be treated as investment advice. For full disclaimer information, please click here
Auto Car
27-05-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Car
Why motorists are facing waits of a year or more for crucial car repairs
'You can see, just for a windscreen replacement, the complexity goes up, and the number of parts required and the skill that's required, all of that. Do that for headlights, do that for radars and the amount of parts that logistics companies have to carry goes up massively.' On top of this, suggested Townsend, car makers are no longer stocking a large surplus of spare parts, due to various factors affecting their finances. 'The biggest pain point for the incumbent vehicle manufacturers is cash flow,' he said. 'Because of the challenges coming from the likes of China and with [import] tariffs in America, Dieselgate, electrification and all of this, they simply don't have the cash flow to have millions of pounds sitting in stock. 'They're having to reduce their stock holdings across Europe that would traditionally have supplied the market, because they simply can't afford to have millions of pounds sitting in a warehouse not doing anything.' This point is particularly pertinent at a time when the market is demanding broader choice, explained Townsend, because with each type of powertrain comes a different assortment of parts, dramatically increasing the cost of keeping a healthy supply of spares. He said: 'If we were all buying electric vehicles, the problem would go away, because they would just move from one [powertrain type] to another. But the market isn't quite ready, so manufacturers have to serve the market by producing plug-in hybrids, normal hybrids, electric variants etc. So it's hugely complex at a time when manufacturers are cash-constrained.' The wait times also put pressure on insurers to declare crashed cars a total loss when they have suffered only minor damage, explained Townsend. This is because the cost of a courtesy car may outweigh the value of a repair if the part will take weeks or months to arrive. He said: 'We had an incident with an EV in the middle of 2023. Somebody bought an EV brand new in July for £35,000. Then it suffered a third-party hit. The door and the wing mirror were damaged. The vehicle manufacturer couldn't provide a lead time [for a replacement mirror], so that car was written off for a wing mirror.'
