Audi promised complete transparency as it continues to clean up after the emissions scandal however shareholders at the automaker’s yearly meeting on Thursday again prompted managers to reveal more about the scandal.
Since dieselgate broke in 2015, financiers have called on Audi and Volkswagen to come clean about the emissions scandal and some say they are stunned the findings of an internal query have still not been released.
Audi, the most significant contributor to Volkswagen’s earnings, confessed in November 2015 that its 3.0 litre V6 diesel engines were fitted with a device considered illegal in the United States that permitted vehicles to evade U.S. emissions limitations.
Volkswagen has agreed to invest up to $25 billion in the United States to address claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealerships and offered to buy back an estimated of 500,000 polluting U.S. vehicles.
“We will continue until the job is done,” CEO Rupert Stadler said, assuring to make law and principles Audi’s “ultimate benchmark”.
However investors accused leading managers of delaying investigations, criticizing its rejection to release an inquiry led by U.S. law practice Jones Day and contesting the view that lower-ranking managers, instead of executives, were to blame.
“It’s high time that promises for a blunt cleaning up through complete transparency by management bodies will materialize,” stated Christian Strenger, a supervisory board member at DWS Deutsche Asset Management GmbH. “Rejecting and delaying is all we have been hearing to date.”
