Dieselgate: Volkswagen addresses trust

Under-siege emissions cheat Volkswagen will work to win back public trust by moving its official emissions testing to independent bodies, while delivering a scheme to thwart resale losses from #Dieselgate cars.

Volkswagen Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch yesterday said one of the company’s biggest issues would be to regain public trust and to support current Volkswagen owners.

At a press conference to deliver the preliminary results of an internal investigation into Dieselgate late yesterday in Europe, Pötsch said all future Volkswagen Group emissions test would be outsourced.

“Volkswagen has decided that in the future emissions test will be evaluated externally and independently,” Pötsch said.

“In addition, randomly selected real-life tests to assess emissions behaviour on the road will be introduced.

"We hope that this will help Volkswagen regain lost trust."

In addition, Volkswagen Group Board of Management Chairman and CEO Matthias Müller said the repair work needed to bring the 11 million Volkswagen Group cars back into the legal emissions zone would not impact performance or fuel economy.

“We’re offering technical solutions that do not impact performance,” Müller said at the press conference.

“The impact will be negligible – customers won’t be able to feel it.

While the company’s offer of $US1000 in no-strings compensation to its North American customers went over poorly in the rest of the world (and not that well in the US), Müller insisted it was still working on a plan to ensure affected Dieselgate owners paid no financial penalty.

“We are working on an effective package for all our customers,” he said.

“There will be an attractive package, let’s call it compensation, for the reduction in value of the cars,” he insisted.

Volkswagen has fallen from the dizzying heights of overtaking Toyota as global sales leader in August to dumping 25 per cent of its volume in year-on-year November sales figures.

"Overall, the situation is not dramatic but, as was to be expected, it's tense," Müller admitted.

"Although the current situation is serious, this company will not be broken by it.

“We have a clear mission: we will create a new, better, and stronger Volkswagen. A company that uses its strengths to make the transition to the new world of automobiles. A company that now releases new forces, and takes better advantage of its huge potential.

“And, last but not least, a company that will be successful over the long term on the basis of strong values."

Follow the Dieselgate saga on motoring.com.au