Australia: VW probe to take ‘several months’

This after Australia became the latest country to warn the company it could face huge fines.

VW, which sparked a global uproar when it admitted to fitting sophisticated software in certain of its diesel engines to skew emission testing, has hired US legal firm Jones Day to conduct an independent probe into the affair that has rocked the entire automobile sector.

The steering committee of VW’s supervisory board was “of the opinion that the investigations will take several months,” it said in a statement.

Given the time and personnel resources needed for the investigation, an extraordinary general meeting that was originally going to be held on November 9 is being postponed.

In addition to VW’s own investigations, regulatory and legal probes are under way all over the world to pinpoint the masterminds behind the scam, which has plunged the auto group into its deepest-ever crisis and left it facing huge fines and a possible tidal wave of litigation.

The EU is seeking to decide on “co-ordinated action” by the end of November based on the various investigations in its member states, Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska told journalists.

In the United States alone, VW could face up to $18-billion in fines.

Full content: The Financial Times

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