Audi cops $1 billion "dieselgate" fine
Massive fine will end investigation as Audi accepts responsibility and promises not to lodge an appealEmbattled German car-maker Audi is hoping $1 billion dollar fine will be enough to make German prosecutors stop investigating emissions cheating and allow them to stage a sales comeback.
But the chances of that remain slim while its former chief executive Rupert Stadler remains in the custody of Munich’s prosecutors on suspicion of tampering with their investigations into the "dieselgate" scandal.
The other Bavarian car-maker, a part of the Volkswagen Group, was fined €800 million ($A1.29 billion) today by German prosecutors, but the fine only related to its V6 and V8 turbo diesel engines that failed to meet emissions standards.
In accepting the fine, Audi has also accepted responsibility and will not lodge an appeal, with a statement today confirming the fine would end “another” investigation into its “deviations from regulatory requirements by Volkswagen group diesel vehicles”.
Made up of the maximum €5 million penalty for negligent regulatory offences and €795 million in “disgorgement of economic benefits”, the administrative order to issue the fine is similar to the one used by prosecutors to hit the Volkswagen Group €1 billion fine in June.
VW was fined for developing and selling polluting four-cylinder engines, while prosecutors in Munich at the time said they were examining whether to impose similar fines on Audi.
The fine is large enough to have a significant impact on the bottom lines of both Audi and the Volkswagen Group.
"Considering these special items, the Audi Group will significantly undercut major financial key performance indicators forecasted for the fiscal year 2018," the statement read.
While the admission and the fine officially end the investigations by the Braunschweig prosecutors office, though personal cases of crime will still be pursued.
While the crime has cost the Volkswagen Group around €28 billion already, today’s fine will not draw a line underneath its legal headaches. It still faces a shareholder class action suit for more than €8 billion.
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