Auto News 5

Around 300 temporary workers at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant protested at the weekend, demanding wage hikes similar to those given to permanent workers. Following the protests, the plant was closed for part of yesterday (27 September).

Mercedes will continue to promote diesel cars in Japan despite the negative impression that VW's emissions test cheating has had on the fuel technology.

Volkswagen has reportedly been given a deadline of 7 October by the federal motor vehicle office of Germany (KBA) to come up with "binding measures and a timetable" for ensuring that all its diesel cars meet emissions standards.

ZF Hero Chassis Systems has opened a factory in Oragadam, Chennai to assemble front and rear axle modules for the nearby BMW car assembly plant.

Tesla has opened a new factory dedicated to supplying European customers with its Model S EV. The factory, located in Tilburg, in the Netherlands, streamlines the production process for European deliveries, the automaker said.

German prosecutors have launched an investigation into former Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn as a result of the diesel emissions-rigging scandal, according to multiple media reports on Monday (28 September).

Ferrari has opened its new showroom in Moscow.

Where is this all going to end? That must be the feeling of Volkswagen group executives every morning as they watch the TV news bulletins and study the daily papers in the wake of the Emissionsgate scandal. Each new revelation or confession prompts a fresh set of questions. How many people knew about the defeat device to cheat diesel exhaust emissions tests? Who sanctioned it? And now that VW has owned up to fitting it to European cars as well as those in America, where the storm first blew in, could other group brands which do not sell in the US - such as Seat and Skoda - also become involved?

BMW-owned Rolls-Royce has announced North America president Eric Shepherd "has decided to move to a new entrepreneurial role in the super-luxury automotive retail sector within the Rolls-Royce family".

The U.S. regulator overseeing the replacement of Takata airbags is considering an order that would expand the recalls and has contacted seven manufacturers who could be affected, including Volkswagen AG and Tesla Motors Inc.

Prosecutors in Germany have opened a criminal probe into former VW Group CEO Martin Winterkorn after the automaker admitted it cheated emissions tests in some of its diesel cars.

News 28 Sep, 2015

Audi and Skoda say 3.3 million of their cars come with the VW Group's defeat device aimed at fooling emissions tests

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is demanding Volkswagen carry out an investigation with "absolute transparency" into the automaker's concession there had been discrepancies in its diesel emissions testing.

Porsche plans to buy 1.5% of Volkswagen's ordinary shares from Suzuki Motors as part of the unwinding of the failed partnership between the two groups.

New cars in Europe are emitting on average 40 percent more carbon dioxide than laboratory tests show, demonstrating that VW Group's rigging of emissions tests is only part of much wider cheating in the region, an environmental campaign group said.

Daimler's Mercedes-Benz has begun local assembly of two new models in Thailand, the GLA and the CLA. They are now imported as completely knocked-down (CKD) kits rather than as completely built-up (CBU) units from Germany and are built at the Thonburi Automotive Assembly plant in Samut Prakan province.

Audi said 2.1 million of its diesel-powered cars, including best-sellers such as the A4 sedan and Q5 sport utility vehicle, are equipped with software implicated in an emissions-testing scandal that has engulfed parent company Volkswagen Group.

News 28 Sep, 2015

Audi has developed a functioning solar-powered moon buggy with Google Lunar Xprize contestants

VW Group has suspended Audi development chief Ulrich Hackenberg, VW brand randd boss Heinz-Jakob Neusser and Porsche development head Wolfgang Hatz, Reuters reported.

Were there other warning signs that could have tipped off regulators that Volkswagen diesels driven on the road were polluting too much?