Doubt cast over VW’s Diess

NEW Volkswagen chief Herbert Diess, so far widely seen as untarnished by the firm’s “dieselgate” emissions cheating scandal, may have known about the trickery earlier than previously thought, according to a media report yesterday.

Oliver Schmidt, a former VW manager jailed in the US over dieselgate, told the FBI he had briefed Diess and other executives about the cheating and the potential financial consequences almost a month before the group’s public admission in September 2015, newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported.

A presentation shown at that August 25 meeting and obtained by the newspaper used the legal term “defeat device” – shorthand for a physical or software system that makes a vehicle appear less polluting under test conditions compared with real on-road driving.

VW’s admission on September 18 2015 that it had fitted 11 million vehicles worldwide with the devices has so far cost it more than ß25-billion (R366-billion) in buy-backs, fines and compensation, and the company remains mired in legal woes at home and abroad.

His presence at the briefing could mean Diess, who joined the firm from BMW only in July 2015, was more fully up to speed on the scandal than he has so far acknowledged.

Volkswagen spokesmen did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the report. – AFP