Canada’s government announced on Monday that it is charging German automaker Volkswagen for knowingly importing cars that violated emissions standards.
Volkswagen faces 58 charges of violating the Canadian Environmental Protection act as well as two other charges of providing misleading information to officials.
Between 2008 and 2015, Volkswagen imported 128,000 diesel engine vehicles into Canada that were outfitted with software to make it appear as though the cars produced fewer emissions than they actually did.
In a statement, the company said that it is cooperating with Canadian investigators and that it has already prepared a plea deal ahead of its first court appearance in Toronto on Friday.
“At the hearing, the parties will submit for the court’s consideration a proposed plea resolution and seek its approval,” the statement said. “The details of the proposed plea resolution will be presented at the hearing.”
Lawsuits in over 50 countries
Canada’s case against Volkswagen comes over four years after the company’s executives admitted to cheating on emissions tests in the so-called Dieselgate scandal.
Environment Canada, the country’s environment and climate change ministry, was criticized for taking too long to bring charges after launching an investigation into the company in September 2015.
Read more: Volkswagen’s electric future
Volkswagen is currently facing lawsuits in more than 50 countries over the scandal, already costing the company over $30 billion (€27 billion) in fines and compensation for customers.
In March 2017, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to charges in the United States and was fined over $4.3 billion. Several company executives were also charged in the US and Germany.
The company reached a settlement in Australia over the scandal in September.
rs/dr (AP, Reuters)
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Dieselgate: A timeline
The disaster unfolds
About two weeks after Volkswagen admitted behind closed doors to US environmental regulators that it had installed cheating software in some 11 million of its diesel vehicles worldwide, the Environmental Protection Agency shared that information with the public. It was September 18, 2015. The ensuing crisis would eventually take a few unexpected turns.
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Dieselgate: A timeline
The boss must go, long live the boss
Volkswagen’s then-CEO Martin Winterkorn (above) had little choice but to step down several days after news of the scandal broke. In September, he tendered his resignation, but retained his other posts within the Volkswagen Group. Winterkorn’s successor was Matthias Müller. Until taking the reins at VW, Müller had been the chairman at Porsche, a VW subsidiary.
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Dieselgate: A timeline
Raiding headquarters
Regulators in the US weren’t the only ones investigating VW. Authorities in Lower Saxony, the German state in which VW is based, were also scrutinizing the company. On October 8, state prosecutors raided VW’s headquarters along with several other corporate locations.
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Dieselgate: A timeline
Hell breaks loose
On January 4, 2016, the US government filed a lawsuit against VW in Detroit, accusing the German automaker of fraud and violations of American climate protection regulations. The lawsuit sought up to $46 billion for violations of the Clean Air Act.
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Dieselgate: A timeline
Quit or forced out?
In March, the head of VW in the US, Michael Horn, resigned. In the initial days and weeks after the scandal broke, he was the one US authorities turned to for information. He issued an official apology on behalf of the automaker, asking for the public’s forgiveness.
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Dieselgate: A timeline
Settlement
On October 25, a US judge approved a final settlement that would have VW pay $15.3 billion. In addition, affected cars would be retrofitted with better, non-deceptive hardware and software, or else VW would buy them back completely from customers.
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Dieselgate: A timeline
Imitators
When dieselgate first emerged in 2015, analysts said it was likely other car makers were also cheating tests. But it wasn’t until 2017 that other companies were targeted in probes. In July, German authorities launched investigations into luxury car makers Porsche and Daimler for allegedly cheating emissions tests. Others, such as Audi and Chrysler, have also been hit by similar allegations.
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Dieselgate: A timeline
Public still supportive
Despite dieselgate, VW has managed to keep the emissions scandal from utterly tarnishing its image. According to several polls, between 55 to 67 percent of Germans continue to trust the automaker. In the US, polls show that roughly 50 percent still believe the German company produces worthwhile vehicles.
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Dieselgate: A timeline
Fuming over monkeys
In late January, however, VW suffered another heavy blow over reports that the company experimented on monkeys and made the animals inhale diesel fumes. To make matters worse, a separate experiment that had humans inhale relatively harmless nitrogen dioxide was revealed at the same time. Some media wrongly interpreted this to mean humans were also inhaling toxic fumes.
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Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/canada-charges-volkswagen-over-diesel-emissions-scandal/a-51602591?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf