Volkswagen’s boss gave a detailed sketch on how the automaker plans to transform and focus more on the production of electric cars. It also plans to shift its focus to provision of services such as vehicle-sharing as it aims at getting past the recent scandal on emission tests cheating. Matthias Mueller said during a recent annual conference that the company’s primary task will be to recall and fix all vehicles that were implicated in the cheating scandal. It will ensure that this is done until all the vehicles are back in order. He further emphasized that the car business of Volkswagen is still fundamentally sound and gave a detailed plan that emphasizes on creation of zero-emission cars and provision of digital services.
The company’s plan also includes the formation of a legally autonomous firm that will play the role of promoting the business in terms of its mobility services. This will be inclusive of things such as car-sharing and ride-sharing applications. Mueller also said that this automaker will have electric vehicles as one of its novel hallmarks with a target of producing twenty new models by the year 2020. In the past, Volkswagen focused on promoting diesel technology that has since suffered a major blow. This blow came about when it became evident that the engines of Volkswagen car models could not meet the standards governing the U.S. emissions without cheating.
The company admitted to the use of an engine application that made the emissions control inactive when the cars were not under test. Although the disabling of these controls led to improved mileage and performance, it implied that the cars spewed much more than the legally acceptable levels of pollutants. Mr. Mueller once again gave his heartfelt apology for the scandal during a yearly news conference that was recently held in Germany. He acknowledged the fact that they had betrayed the trust that many people had in Volkswagen.
The company incurred a net loss in the year 2015 after setting aside a sum of money for the scandal costs. According to analysts, there will be significantly higher final costs. Part of the funds reserved for the scandal will be used for fixing or purchasing back diesels that had rigged software. Currently, the company is trying to work out an agreement with the United States authorities at a San Francisco-based federal court. If a settlement is reached, up to half a million out of about 600,000 defective cars will be bought back by Volkswagen.