Volkswagen is in some deep stuff right now. So deep, in fact, that they just deleted diesels from their website.

Volkswagen’s turmoil is pretty serious right now. We writers came up with the silly “Dieselgate” name, and lets be honest, anytime the media slaps “gate” at the end of anything, you know there’s trouble.

If you open up VW’s website, you’ll find nary a mention of diesels and you won’t find most their questionable TDIs on their car configurator (the Touareg TDI is the only one left)—crazy considering how just a month ago VW was touting their diesels as the second coming.

On one hand, since you can’t buy one, it makes sense that you can’t configure one. But on the other hand, many automakers offer configurators for vehicles not yet on the market. Volkswagen’s diesels will come back at some point, so why delete them from the website?

Either Volkswagen has no ballpark idea of when diesels will make a comeback, or it’s just going to be a really long time from now.

“Statistically, we can’t point out who died because of this policy, but some people have died or likely died as a result of this,” said Carnegie Mellon environmental engineer professor Peter Adams. He calculates the cost of air pollution with a sophisticated computer model that he and the AP used in its analysis.

Computer software allowed VW diesel cars to spew between 10 to 40 times more nitrogen oxides (NOx) than allowed by regulation, making this “clearly a concern for air quality and public health,” said Janet McCabe, acting air quality chief for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Nitrogen oxides mostly form smog — that murky, dirty air that makes it hard to see and for some people to breathe — but also amplify a deadlier, larger problem: tiny particles of soot. Numerous medical studies show those tiny particles cause about 50,000 deaths a year in the United States, mostly from heart problems.

Nitrogen oxides can travel hundreds of miles, so pollution spewed in Pittsburgh can be felt on the East Coast, Adams said....

New Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller warned staff on Tuesday to brace for "massive cutbacks" in response to the diesel emissions scandal that has hammered the company's stock and reputation.

Speaking to employees at VW headquarters in Wolfsburg, Mueller, who replaced longtime CEO Martin Winterkorn late last month, said all the company's investment plans would be put under review and an existing cost-cutting programme accelerated, cautioning, "this will not be painless".

It was the first admission that the emissions crisis, which has sent tremors through the broader auto industry, could lead to significant job cuts at the company, which employs close to 60,000 at its main factory, roughly 10 percent of its global workforce.

"We need to make massive cutbacks in order to manage the consequences of the crisis," Mueller told more than 20,000 workers at the staff gathering, according to a statement released by Volkswagen.

"Technical solutions to the problems are within view. However, the business and financial consequences are not yet clear," he said, adding that VW would review all of its investment plans.

"What is not urgently needed will be scrapped or delayed," Mueller said. "And therefore we will adjust our efficiency programme. I will be very open: this won't be painless."

Workers at the meeting wore t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "One team - one family" and held up banners declaring "We are Volkswagen"

Earlier, Bernd Osterloh, the influential head of VW's works council, said the scandal would impact earnings at the core autos division as well as bonus payments to workers.

But he played down the impact on jobs, saying there were no immediate plans to cut staff and stressing that workers would not "foot the bill for the wrongdoings of a group of managers". VW employs roughly 60,000 people at its main factory.

Mueller said the company's more important task was to restore trust after it admitted that 11 million vehicles were affected by the rigging of diesel emissions tests. But he noted that thoroughness was more important than speed in clearing up the issue.

The company has an Oct. 7 deadline to present a plan to Germany's KBA regulator to bring diesel emissions into line with the law.

A letter sent to German lawmakers and seen by Reuters on Tuesday said that 8 million diesel vehicles in the European Union were fitted with software capable of cheating vehicle emissions tests.

Mueller said for some of the vehicles it would be sufficient to have software refitted, while others may need additional work on the hardware.

Sources close to Volkswagen's board had told Reuters last week that it was considering cost cuts as well as measures to boost cash flow in order to prop up its credit rating.

The raids were carried out Thursday in Wolfsburg, where VW has its headquarters, and at other locations.

By: Geir Moulson Associated Press, Published on Thu Oct 08 2015

BERLIN — German prosecutors carried out searches Thursday in connection with their investigation of the Volkswagen emissions scandal, seeking material that would help clarify who was responsible for the cheating.

The raids were carried out Thursday in Wolfsburg, where VW has its headquarters, and at other locations, prosecutors in nearby Braunschweig said in a statement.

They said the aim of the searches was to “secure documents and data storage devices” that could identify those involved in the alleged manipulation and explain how it was carried out.

According to Bloomberg, three prosecutors and some 50 state criminal investigators searched the carmaker’s factories in Wolfsburg, as well as the homes of several employees, said Birgit Seel, a senior prosecutor in the German state of Lower Saxony. Investigators took documents and electronic media.

Prosecutors last week launched an investigation to determine who was responsible for suspected fraud committed through the sale of vehicles with manipulated emissions data. They acted after receiving about a dozen criminal complaints from citizens and one from VW itself.

Longtime chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned after the scandal broke in the U.S. on Sept. 18, saying that he was not aware of any wrongdoing on his part. He was replaced by Porsche boss Matthias Mueller.

Volkswagen has suspended four individuals, including three managers who were responsible for engine development, and hired U.S. law firm Jones Day to conduct an investigation.

Earlier Thursday, Germany’s vice chancellor travelled to Wolfsburg to send a message of support to the automaker’s employees, and urged the company to be pro-active in its efforts to clear up the scandal.

Sigmar Gabriel, who is also Germany’s economy minister, joined a meeting of employee representatives from Germany and beyond as Volkswagen tries to determine who was responsible for the installation of test-cheating software and how quickly up to 11 million vehicles that potentially contain it can be fixed.

“I think it is important to send the message that, in the end, the employees must not pay the price for ... criminal behaviour by managers,” Gabriel said in Wolfsburg, where VW is headquartered.

“It is clear that the company must clear this up — the more offensively it does so, the better,” Gabriel said. “The more defensively it approaches the question, the more difficult it will be. My impression is that the supervisory board and the new CEO know this.”

The company says a recall of cars with the suspect software could start in Germany in January and last until the end of next year. On Wednesday, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the automaker said in reply to German authorities’ demand for a timetable that there would be a recall for vehicles with 2-litre, 1.6-litre and 1.2-litre engines.

VW said the 2-litre engines will need a software update that should be ready before the year’s end and be installed from the beginning of 2016, according to Dobrindt. He said 1.6-litre vehicles will need “an engineering modification that according to Volkswagen shouldn’t be expected before September 2016.”

There are some 3.6 million 1.6-litre cars in Europe, Dobrindt said. He didn’t say what fix 1.2-litre cars will require.

The software in question, known as a “defeat device,” is capable of turning on pollution controls for lab tests and shutting them off during real-world driving. German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported Thursday that VW apparently used it for that purpose in Europe as well as the U.S.

Volkswagen said in an emailed response to questions about the report that “whether and to what extent this software actually intervenes improperly is currently still the object of internal and external tests.” The company added that it’s also not yet clear whether the software was banned under European rules.

With files from Bloomberg

By Andreas Cremer

BERLIN (Reuters) - German prosecutors raided Volkswagen's headquarters and other offices on Thursday as part of their investigation into the carmaker's rigging of diesel emissions tests.

Prosecutors from Braunschweig, close to the German company's home town of Wolfsburg, said they were targeting documents and data storage devices that might help with their inquiries.

Volkswagen said it was supporting the investigation and had handed over a "comprehensive" range of documents.

Almost three weeks after it confessed publicly to rigging U.S. emissions tests, Europe's largest carmaker is under huge pressure to identify those responsible, fix affected vehicles and clarify exactly how and where the cheating happened.

The biggest business crisis in Volkswagen's 78-year history has wiped more than a third off its share price, forced out its long-time chief executive, prompted investigations across the world and rocked both the car industry and German establishment.

Later on Thursday, the company's top U.S. executive will tell a panel of U.S. lawmakers he knew the carmaker might be breaking U.S. emissions rules as long as 18 months before it admitted cheating diesel tests to regulators.

The admission by Michael Horn, in a written testimony to a congressional oversight panel a day ahead of the hearing, is likely to raise questions about why the company did not act more quickly to tackle its wrongdoing.

"In the spring of 2014 ... I was told that there was a possible emissions non-compliance that could be remedied," Horn, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said in his statement published on a U.S. House of Representatives website.

"I was also informed that the company engineers would work with the agencies to resolve the issue," he said, without identifying the people providing him with the information.

It was not until Sept. 3, 2015, that Volkswagen told U.S. regulators it had installed so-called "defeat devices" in some diesel engines to mask their true level of toxic emissions. U.S. regulators made public the wrongdoing on Sept. 18.

Volkswagen has come under fire on both sides of the Atlantic for its handling of the crisis, with lawmakers, investors and customers saying it has been too slow to release information.

Analysts are still unsure how widespread the cheating was.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Thursday that Volkswagen's manipulation software was switched on in Europe, citing a company spokesman.

The carmaker has previously said the software could be installed on up to 11 million vehicles, mostly in Europe, but that for the majority of them it "does not have any effect".

In a statement on Thursday, Volkswagen said it was still investigating whether or to what extent the software interfered illegally with vehicles.

"We are working intensely on technical solutions," a spokesman said. "For that reason, questions posed at this point of time are speculative."

IN-HOUSE

Volkswagen has suspended more than 10 senior managers, including three top engineers, as part of an internal investigation. It has also hired U.S. law firm Jones Day to conduct an external inquiry.

But some analysts have questioned whether new Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch and new CEO Matthias Mueller, both company veterans, will introduce the sweeping changes in business practices they think are necessary to restore Volkswagen's reputation.

Poetsch said on Wednesday it would take "some time" to get to the bottom of the matter.

The company, controlled by the Piech-Porsche clan, is not drawing on outside restructuring experts to help with its plans for a new company structure, one source close to the board said.

"There’s a strong tradition to handle such matters in-house," the source said, adding the company was also unlikely to draw on outside experts as it reviews investment plans and steps up cost savings to help meet the cost of the scandal.

Critics say giving top jobs to company insiders could also complicate the clean-up. For example, it would make it hard for the supervisory board to take legal action against the management board because, until he became supervisory board chairman, Poetsch sat on the management board as finance chief.

UBS analysts estimate Volkswagen could face a bill of around 35 billion euros ($40 billion) to refit cars, pay regulatory fines and settle lawsuits, though they also say this is more than factored into the stock price after its plunge.

The crisis has been a major embarrassment for Germany, which has for years held up Volkswagen as a model of the country's engineering prowess and looks to the car industry as a source of export income and an employer of more than 750,000 people.

Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Thursday urged Volkswagen to be pro-active in addressing its problems, but also said critics should not overstep the mark.

"There should not be a debate about the automotive industry or about diesel technology," Gabriel said after attending a meeting of Volkswagen's world workers council.

Data on Thursday showed German exports plunged in August by the largest amount since the height of the global financial crisis in the latest sign that slowing emerging markets are hurting Europe's largest economy.

European carmakers rely heavily on diesel vehicles, which account for about a half of new sales in Europe compared with only a small fraction in the United States.

Horn, reaffirmed in his position by Volkswagen on Sept. 25, also said in his testimony Volkswagen had withdrawn its U.S. certification application for some model year 2016 vehicles over a software feature that should have been disclosed to regulators as an auxiliary emissions control device.

Go visit Beijing on a winter day and look up at the sky (or LA on a smoggy day) - what you see there is not caused by VW diesels. And guess what, despite the increase in the number of ICE engines (diesel or otherwise, within EPA limit or otherwise) around the world, the air is still cleaner today in the US than it was 30 years ago.

So just like the climate change "professors" livelihood depends on perpetuating the myth that man made global warming is destroying the planet (there's warming but a very small fraction of it is caused by man and mankind going back to the stone age will not stop the warming), there will be "environmental" professors whose livelihood may depend on piling on to this "dieselgate" issue.

Biker, who would bet money that the professor that mentioned the increase in deaths from diesel-gate is a tree-hugging liberal.

Texas has filed two suits against Volkswagen, charging that the automaker's emissions rigging violated state consumer protection laws and clean air standards. The lawsuit is part of a probe into the German automaker's diesel scandal being undertaken by 45 states and the District of Columbia. There are also over 250 class action suits that have been filed in US federal courts.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday that his state would seek restitution for consumers, and an injunction and civil penalties to prohibit future violations. Paxton, who himself has been indicted for securities fraud, said in a statement, "When companies willfully violate the public's trust, a penalty must be paid." Paxton said Texans purchased around 32,000 affected vehicles. There are about 49 authorized VW dealerships statewide. The Texas suit is asking for pollution fines of somewhere between $50 and $25,000 per vehicle (quite a spread, we know) for each day the vehicles were in use in the state.

Volkswagen admitted in the middle of September that it installed devices designed to defeat government emissions tests on many Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars dating to model year 2009. Globally, 11 million VW group vehicles are affected. The automaker declined to comment to Bloomberg on the Texas lawsuit.

Last month, Harris County, which includes Houston, filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against VW, alleging the automaker contributed to air quality problems. You can find PDFs of the two state lawsuits here (the deceptive-practices case) and here (the environmental case).