2nd week topic 2

This week there are 3 subjects you can comment on 1, 2 or all 3.

Topic 2 is The VW situation

Honnestly construct a strong image is a long road (good price-quality ratio, strong tech, deutch quality, low C02 release : origin of the scandal), but jeopardize it is way easier ! And for sure it can take more time to define a new strategie & comm plan.

We've to keep in mind also beside VW make, there's VW group and a lot of famous makes such as Lamborghini, Porsche, Audi, Seat etc ... Therefore, economically (turnover, employment, ...) there should be some deficiency. On the other hand, it should be better for some other companies, like french grougs (Renault or PSA).

For customers that's a token of quality, because after there was a national investigation in USA they had to call back a lot of cars, also we might guess they'll in the future change their C02 release tests, etc ... So that's a high cost for VW but a high victory for customers also to get better informations on the product (mostly of the customers buy a product because of the strongest image).

It's absolutely true, Volkswagen has made a huge mistake and by doing that, it jeopardized it's whole - normally well-earned - reputation. And this mistake influences a lot of other sectors.

First of all, the German economy depends highly on the automotive sector, with the country even being financially involved in some companies. So, losing credibility does not only mean less profit for VW - it might also lead to further economic problems for Germany.
Secondly, the employees now have to fear for their job. And this problem is even personal to me, since I have a lot of family and friends working for the VW group.

One has to admit that it took a lot of criminal energy to develop this software and to cheat this massively. And the money invested in this kind of technology could have been better invested in new technologies. Replace the diesel-cars, do not improve them!

Nevertheless, one final point has to be made. To us Germans, it seems kind of ridiculous that it has been the United States who decided to sue VW. Well, of course they are right in doing so. HOWEVER the best-selling car in the US needs about 20 litres to work... And honestly, when did they suddenly start to care about the environment? Don't get me wrong, I am not defending VW.. I just wanted to point that out

I'm amazed that so many intelligent, honourable human beings (management and the entire Engineering staff) just said nothing and allowed it to happen.

Apart from everything else I think my faith in the German population has been shaken.

I think that Volkswagen does not have to be the only one company to fool us to win on its costs and its time of production. Indeed, for me, other firms make the same thing. Be lacking luck for Volkswagen, it was caught and it touched on a sensitive rope which is the pollution. For them the consequences are going to be heavy, his credibility to the customers is going to fall and thus I think strongly that the other groups of manufacturer of cars are going to take advantage of it. We can see also penalties and expensive repairs which it will have to pay. Nevertheless, the group has of the resource in terms of money but also ideas.
Even if manager's change shows a desire to erase its error for the company, I find that the old director Martin WINTERKORN should have faced up to his/her responsibilities. He made an error, he repairs it. Furthermore, I wish to criticize the choice of the person which takes back company, indeed, Matthias MULLER is rather old, thus very soon the group will again have to change CEO. Volkswagen should have taken the opportunity to bring of the youth and the new in the direction.
The consequences of the scandal affect the company but also the German population. Indeed, the ideal of the German engineering is questioned. It is thus the pillar of the German economy which undergoes the consequences. Indeed, this activity represented all the same 2 % of the working population. I would add that the credibility of the chancellor Angela MERKEL became little viable further to the deceit of Volkswagen. To end in the consequences, we can see also the fall in stock exchange of all the automobile values.

This accident has, of course, a big consequence for VW's company and car industry but there is a very questioning of diesel...

Even if other makers of diesel vehicles have not resorted to the same level of deception as VW, the scandal could mean that these cars struggle to meet standars applied rigorously to both types of emission. Some fear that this may be the "death of diesel". So be it. There is still scope to improve the venerable petrol engine, and to switch to cleaner cars that run on methane, hydrogen and elictricity, or are hybrids. A multi-billion-dollar race is already under way between the various technologies, with makers often betting on several of them as the way to meet emissions target. If VW's behavior hastens diesel's death, it may lead at last, after so many false starts, to the beginning of the electric-car age.

Yes it could be a great opportunity for the development of "greener" cars. By the way it's one of a way VK choosed to end this crisis, they want to develop their electric vehicules and promote the fact they invest in lot on environemental. VK will invest more than 11.9 billion euros this year in R&D, it would be 65% more than the investment of Fiat, Renault and Peugeot combined
(sources : Reuters article, i can't poste a link sorry :/)

I'm not sure it's the best way to save their company, financialy speaking, because people will have hard time to trust them on the question of environment. But it's probably the best way to show to public they learned by their mistakes, and they try to do their best to be at the top of environmental technologies.

The car industry and the petroleum industry are too big and politically powerful!

Alternative energy cars could have been on the streets many years ago but that is not in the best interest of the Petroleum companies in particular. The government should have helped investment in solar and water powered cars but they haven't.

It would be great if this catastrophe speeded up the green car revolution but I'm worried that the government will simply tax diesel car owners more money, reducing their standard of living further. The French government has been pushing the sale of diesel cars for a long time - I'm pretty sure that France has the highest proportion of diesel cars on the road - and they would be wrong to now tax all those car owners more without giving them the possibility to switch to a reasonable priced green alternative.

I'd love to drive a non-polluting car but even the hybrids are priced too high and the electric cars are not yet efficient enough for serious driving.

It could hurt the stock market but I doubt it. It's more likely to boost the economy as VW prove what a wonderful "green" company they are and others have to match them.

VW faces about the worst situation because of the cheating software on the automaker and emission violation,and then,Volkswagen apologised to Lawmakers.
Apparently,this is a big scandal and it will impact the export of Germany even all of the Europe.In other side,the credit of production of Germany will be weaken and the economy of Germany will decrease in next years.We predict if Germany will explode economic crises,that is the question.

Volkswagen make a big fail.. This constructor had a very good reputation,like the other german constructor. They lie to their customers so they want a compensation by them. They will lost a lot of money and now Volkswagen have a bad reputation. The customers will not want buy Volkswagen's cars so the total sale will decrease.. And the cost of one share in stock market will decrease too.. So VW is in a very bad situation.

The VW cheating will have serious consequences both socially and economically.
Indeed, this scandal could jeopardize its global leadership position in the automotive sector. Many clients have lost confidence in the brand. Usually, German industry is seen as a model and that is the pride of the country. But now the disappointment of the German population and customers is huge, they feel betrayed.
From an economic point of view, according to analysts, the cost could rise between 20 and 80 billion euros. Consequently, VW will likely be in deficit this year. According to the CFO of the group it's "a crisis that threatens the existence of society."
This has already had an impact on employment, since VW announced a hiring freeze and job cuts.
However, it should see the positive side of this case, it could encourage other manufacturers to improve compliance with the regulation because it's very likely that VW is not the only manufacturer to cheat.
Finally, we must note that one of the concerns for VW customers concerns the drop in value of their vehicles.
Thus, this scandal marks a turning point in the life of the German group and leads us to ask questions about its future...

The consequences of these situations were disastrous. I am disappointed that Volkswagen is anymore an enterprise that I can trust in; he has destroyed his good image in my mind.  In my opinion, it not only hurts his business, his image in people’s mind but also finally hurt people.  As Volkswagen cheating in his automobile exhaust testing, it may affect people’s view of “made in Germany”, as we known, Germany is famous for products of quality, especially in manufacturing, I think It will seriously damage the image of “made in Germany”. Compared with other company, after all, Volkswagen in Germany is synonymous with top, represents a honest, reliable and efficient.

Be aware that in life, the lies exist. Certainly, in the case of Volkswagen, they didn't know how to manage the frauds and the worst it's that they were taken on their rigged diesel engines. On their place, I would have said they badly hid their fraud. I think the image created by the German brands of quality of their products were destroyed after the scandal. It's a double failure for them : they lose customers and pay off the damages thanks to media. I think at Volkswagen shops, there is a long queue waiting for compensation.
After, it's true that "be green" in recent years has become a kind of fashion/trend into the companies. They try to enhance their image by the "green" especially in France. This is why in France the shock of Volkswagen was so serious.
But well, it will not prevent me from buying later a VW car. I think people exaggerate a little on these subjects like horse meat in meat balls, cottage pies (IKEA) or the feces and bacteria in the American steaks (problem in the killing methods).

Hi everybody,
the cause of the scandal is that Wolkswagen would have equipped his diesel models with a software able to mislead the tests of anti-pollution measurement of the authorities, that means to make people believe that a model was less polluting than than it was not actually. and that that constitutes a violation of the clean air act in the USA, there are 5 models involved which are: the Golfs, Jetta, Passat, Beetle and Audi A3 made between 2009 to 480,000 vehicles.
In fact, the company took a fine of 37000 usd per vehicle , which mean 18 billions in all.

I think that this cheating was a strategy with an aim of convincing the American authorities and the consumers that in spite of the power of the cars, their consumption as well as technologies used in the engine, the vehicle does not pollute as much as that, that also made it possible to circumvent the pollution policies which they have to respect.

VW will have a lot of work to find back its notoriety in the USA and even in France because the Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal ordered random checks on VW cars in France,

confidence between the company and the authorities will take time to begin again, and the loss generated by the recalls of cars and the fines will shake strongly the credits of the company even if it and a great group

Hello all, for the record, the Volkswagen scandal broke in September 2015 and was revealed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This scandal is linked to the use of this software illegally reducing emissions of some of its diesel engines from the type approval tests.
Personally, I think the group made a very big mistake by doing this. Indeed a company's brand image is terribly important, especially in the automotive sector. This brand is very hard to win but easy to lose. Moreover, with this lie, the group has lost the confidence of its customers, including an environmental point of view because we know the issue of pollution or global warming is at the heart of many debates, and greatly affects the individual consumer behavior.
All these consequences has considerably reduced the court action Volkswagen, which will in future large negative impact on the economy. But finally, I think that Volkswagen is not the only automaker to have used these methods, and other scandals will erupt in the future ...

Whole problem for VW has started when Agency for Environmental Protection has accused Volkswagen from using a software that allows them to hide emission levels during testing. They have used this software in multiple models of diesel vehicles. Emissions are then much higher in real driving compared to testing. We already know that these findings will lead to huge penalties and we expect more testing for future. Not only for VW but also for other brands of cars.
For me it´s very schocking the attitude of VW. They have known about it, but they have changed nothing.
Another penalty was given to the VW by a Stock market where was a huge drop of shares value. Not only Volkswagen’s shares sharply lose it but also Porsche shares and other German manufacturers such a BMW and Daimler.
I can´t imagine the impact of this situation to VW.

Scandal speaking !
The VW case is the last, but only for the moment. It's only a question of time before the exit of a new scandal in the automotive industry, in particulary on pollution. I think all car manufacteurs trafficking its figures to be more attractive buyers and concessionaries and for the company gains a "green image".

VW committed a fraud and will receiving multiple sanctions, USA, Europe, or some Europeans country. That's the case of France, which deciding if it will investigate on VW. Michel Sapin requests that the investigations by Europe and not by a few countries. While E. Macron request to clarify the situation as quickly as possible, both for the company and for KBA, Automotive Regulatory authority.

One obvious! Luckily that I was not a VW actionnary

After the disclosure about the fraud on many of its vehicles, Volkswagen brand is necessarily affected and will struggle to rebuild.
But even if some consumers are now turning away from this brand the problem does not stop there, in fact, the German group could pay heavy almond of several billion euros in various states.
Also after this announcement the Volkswagen share has plummeted which shows a loss of confidence in the company but also a waste of money, the group will therefore work to keep the group at his powerful level, that's why they already forecast a big investment of 1 billion euro.

Actionnaire = shareholder
Amende = Fine

Even if VW will paid the fine, lost one-third of share value and lost confidence of a part of their consumers, I think the group can be counter the sales decrease !
Consumers who don't care about pollution and about this scandal because they like VW product range, will continue to buy VW cars. In one hand all the autombile sector had been touched and in other hand the sector of cars which use diesel had been hurt too so the VW competitors sales should be decreased too.
I think that it will be very difficult for VW to increase their sales but they can do it with for exemple an economy of scales to counter the fine.

I think I'm more worried about the French government using this "scandal" to increase the price of diesel and make me pay much more to come to work.

VW deserves it's situation. VW played and VW lost, that's all !

The biggest scandal in the history of company, penalties of up to $ 18 billion, huge losses and a universal economic disaster. It is a situation which confirm that honesty should be a priority in our activities.
The Volkswagen case determined a big suspicion from all governments around the world concerning the technology used in the auto industry. Now it is appreciated that they try to find out a solution but finally, they should to remedy their craftiness.
Now their money will not serve as a source for development, but to pay their silly mistakes.