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Volkswagen Could Face $18 Billion Fine Over Emission-Cheating Software
After getting caught cheating on emissions testing by means of software, Volkswagen could face up to $18 billion in fines, reports USA Today. That number is based on the company being assessed the maximum penalty of $37,500 per affected vehicle. That's not the only bad news for Volkswagen, which has halted sales of its 4-cylinder diesel cars; the linked article reports that the violations "could also invite charges of false marketing by regulators, a vehicle recall and payment to car owners, either voluntarily or through lawsuits. Volkswagen advertised the cars under the 'Clean Diesel' moniker. The state of California is also investigating the emissions violations."
For reference, $18B would be about 23% of the market cap of the company. In other words, if the company were to pay such a fine by issuing new stock and giving the stock to the government, the government would end up with 23% of the company (or so goes the math if the stock market were being logical).
That's not what's going to happen, but it shows that the company should be able to raise the money to pay the fine if it comes to it. Of course, such things usually take many years of lawsuits and appeals before it's all settled, which is why these things often are settled out of court for a lower price.
And a civilization-killer asteroid *could* crash into the Earth this evening. They're both equally unlikely.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Unless there is some mitigating factor that none of the reports on this story have so far mentioned; Volkswagen seems to be 100% deserving of an absolutely brutal smackdown.
Building ECU code specifically to deliver 'correct' results under test; and totally different results elsewhere, is going to be difficult to explain as an 'accident'; and also the sort of thing that it'd be pretty tricky for a single rogue actor to pull off without the knowledge, and probably the cooperation, of others on the design team and in management.
I realize that it is considered unspeakably barbaric to pierce the corporate veil and cruelly touch the people who actually made the decisions; but under any non-corporate circumstance I'd have to imagine that the prosecution would have a stack of conspiracy charges so thick that it has to be delivered by two burly paralegals, in addition to charges related to the violations themselves; and all the possible civil litigation on the part of the misled customers.
Jetta TDI vs Fiesta? Yeah, you probably ended up with the much better car regardless of the outcome of this issue.