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Weekly Recap: Volkswagen moves forward under Muller

Most stunning was the speed of it all. On the morning of September 18, Volkswagen AG stood atop the automotive world. It was profitable and sold more cars than Toyota and General Motors, its two main rivals for global supremacy. By nightfall, the company would be embroiled in scandal. Revelations the German auto giant cheated on diesel emissions testing in the United States reverberated from Washington to Wolfsburg, Germany. What started out as a problem with 482,000 VWs and Audis in the US exploded into an international scandal. Millions of vehicles have the rigged software, meaning VW broke environmental rules as its cars spewed pollutants all over the world. The fallout began immediately. Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn – one of the most respected and capable executives in the business – apologized on Sunday and Tuesday. On Wednesday he resigned. As the week progressed, the company's stock took a beating and credit agencies threatened to drop their ratings. VW dealers and owners said they felt betrayed. The automaker hired a law firm that defended BP after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The EPA is already extending its testing procedures to look for "defeat devices" like the ones used by Volkswagen. On Friday the company announced a major restructuring. Matthias Muller, Porsche's chief for the last five years, took over as CEO of Volkswagen and is charged with picking up the pieces of a shattered company facing regulatory action and lawsuits. With GM, Toyota, and Takata scandals still fresh, Volkswagen will likely experience unprecedented levels of scrutiny. Additionally, VW's markets in the United States, Canada, and Mexico will be combined into a North American region under the leadership of former Skoda boss Winfried Vahland, though US chief executive Michael Horn will stay on. The company is also realigning its brands by specialty and streamlining its board. Firings, government action, restructurings, and international outrage – things that usually build up over months or years – all occurred in about a week. With dizzying speed, Volkswagen's future has changed dramatically. It all happened, it's still happening, so fast. OTHER NEWS & NOTES 2016 Buick Cascada to start at $33,990 Buick hasn't made a convertible in 25 years. That's a whole person who can drink plus a kindergartner. So it's been awhile. Enter the 2016 Buick Cascada. It has top-shelf Opel engineering, slinky design, and it's reasonably priced.

Nissan and Infiniti to get 6 EVs within 5 years

Nissan will get four new electric-powered vehicles, while its luxury division Infiniti will get two over the next five years, a top executive told Automotive News. The six EVs will make up Nissan and Infiniti's share of the 12 electric vehicles planned for Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi by 2022, though there's no word on how the numbers break down for those other brands. Infiniti last month announced plans for its first all-electric vehicle in 2021, plus new "e-Power" series hybrids like the ones it has introduced in other markets. But the six vehicles divulged by Toshihiro Hirai, Nissan's corporate vice president for powertrain and EV engineering, reportedly include only full battery-electrics and not hybrids. The only full-electric currently offered by either brand in the U.S. is the Nissan Leaf, which was just updated for 2018. Nissan-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn has been a consistent supporter of electric vehicles, and he has said EVs need greater government incentives, lower development costs and a greater recognition among the buying public of the risks of climate change in order to gain traction among consumers. Last summer, Nissan-Renault announced plans to build electric vehicles in China in a new venture with Dongfeng Motor to meet EV quotas. They'll use a subcompact crossover platform from its own vehicle family.Related Video:

Nissan to pull out of venture fund with Renault in cost-cutting drive, insiders say

TOKYO — Nissan is likely to pull out from a venture capital fund it runs with alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi Motors, as part of the Japanese automaker's drive to cut costs and conserve cash, two sources said. Nissan will formally take a decision on whether to leave the fund, Alliance Ventures, by the end of this month, the two Nissan insiders told Reuters, declining to be identified because the information has not been made public. The likely move comes after Nissan's junior partner, Mitsubishi Motors Corp, told an alliance meeting last week that it would no longer continue to inject money into the fund, one of the sources said. The decision to leave the Amsterdam-based fund was all but a done deal, the other source said, adding: "Of course we're out. The house is on fire." A Nissan spokeswoman said it was speculation and declined to comment. A Mitsubishi spokesman said no decision had been made. The move comes as Nissan — which has seen its earnings slump — is now facing a downturn in China, its biggest market, due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. China sales plunged 80% last month. It also highlights the extent of the automaker's cost-cutting under new CEO Makoto Uchida, who is under pressure for a quick turnaround. Alliance Ventures is aimed at finding "learning opportunities" for the alliance through investing in startups, and is supposed get up to $200 million (153.3 million pounds) a year from the three alliance partners, although it never achieves that full amount, the first source said. It was set up under former alliance head Carlos Ghosn, whose dramatic arrest in Japan culminated in an escape to his childhood home of Lebanon in December. Ghosn faces multiple charges in Japan, including of under-reporting earnings and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies. According to its website, the fund was set up with a $200 million initial investment and aims for up to $1 billion by 2023. Portfolio companies include WeRide, a Chinese robo-taxi startup and Tekion Corp, a cloud-based retail platform for cars. "It wasn't established by Ghosn as a way to make money. It was for those learning opportunities we get from investing in smart startups," the first source said. "But given the tough financial situation we are facing, we are looking at investment return." Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by David Dolan/Louise Heavens/Susan Fenton.