Audi fined e800m for diesel emissions cheating scandal

VOLKSWAGEN’S Audi unit agreed to pay an e800 million (R13.2 billion) fine for its role in the diesel-cheating scandal that has disrupted the car industry for more than three years and landed Audi’s longtime leader in jail.

The penalty consists of the maximum fine of e5m and the seizure of e795m in profits the company made selling rigged engines, Munich prosecutors said in a statement. As part of the deal, Audi admitted that it had deviated from regulatory requirements.

The settlement closes another chapter in the long-running probe of Volkswagen’s steps to circumvent diesel emissions regulations, uncovered in 2015.

Volkswagen in June agreed to a similar deal with Braunschweig prosecutors, agreeing to pay e1bn.

Neither settlement has any effect on civil suits against the carmaker or three probes into individual executives.

“We view the fine at Audi as manageable and incrementally positive as it removes another leg of legacy uncertainty at VW,” Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst, who rates the stock as outperforming, wrote in a note to clients.

Volkswagen shares rose 3% at 11.42am in Frankfurt, even as both Audi and its parent said the fine would hurt their financial performance this year. The stock is down 11% this year.

Former Audi chief executive Rupert Stadler is in custody. | Bloomberg