Germany’s automotive regulatory agency ordered Volkswagen to recall 2.4 million vehicles with diesel engines that contained software capable of manipulating pollution control readings in such vehicles. This was the first recall since the discovery of the fraud that affects over 11 million vehicles. As reported in the New York Times, the German government deemed Volkswagen’s proposal to repair affected vehicles as insufficient. The German transportation secretary Alexander Dobrindt, stated that the government’s official review will begin in 2016 under the supervision of federal transportation authorities, known by the agency’s initials K.B.A. It appears that German authorities have no doubt that Volkswagen has the technical capacity to cure the recently discovered deficiencies. As the saying goes, the emissions problems could be a “blessing in disguise”. The problem Volkswagen faces has led the German automaker to accelerate its plans to produce more electric vehicles, and do so as quickly as possible. The German government has requested Volkswagen to produce a fleet of at least one million electric vehicles in circulation by the year 2020. With this huge problem confronting the German automotive giant, the company must now go forward with efforts to move on from this corporate nightmare.
