The Volkswagen diesel scandal has prompted the German transport minister to meet with the counterpart in the U.S. According to Reuters, Alexander Dobrindt will be holding talks today with Anthony Foxx, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation about the scandal. The report goes on to say that Dobrindt hopes to meet with officials from the EPA.

 

That's not all that is taking place in the U.S. for Volkswagen. Another report from Reuters says the company has put plans of overhauling the management and overall strategy for the U.S. on hold till they deal with the litany of lawsuits and penalties.

 

"What matters more than anything else right now is to sort out this disaster," a source said.

 

"If we fail to do that, then questions that are completely different (than the future U.S. leadership) will come up,"

 

Now one of items that this decision affects is finding someone to take the place of North American head Winfried Vahland, who stepped down a few weeks after being announced to the position.

 

Source: Reuters, 2

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Yup an ugly mess that is going to stay around for a bit.

Aside from just the issue - the dieselgate...

 

These modern automotive companies, especially the giants. Their operations are so complicated. Their plans made years, years in advance, and contingency planning is based on the best information available. Sometimes that information itself can be questionable.

 

So you throw a monkey in the works, and it's likely that VW never expected this to happen; either them really being at fault or really bad control mechanisms to ensure something like this would never happen....

 

This is gonna be a muddy affair. And VW U.S., really one of the worst performers in recent times in terms of VW's global market presence is going to go through even more tough times.

 

No wonder all that investor value was lost. And then the estimates of the penalties and fines keep getting revised.