As VW Pleads Guilty in U. S. Over Diesel Scandal, Trouble Looms in Europe -<br />By JACK EWING and NEAL E. BOUDETTEMARCH 10, 2017<br />FRANKFURT — Volkswagen took a big step toward resolving its legal problems in the<br />United States when it pleaded guilty on Friday to its vast emissions deception.<br />The lawsuits are a potentially costly unknown, since there are far more diesel car owners in Europe than in the United States —<br />and they only add to Volkswagen’s ballooning legal bill, which has weighed on profits and shaken management ranks.<br />If it had to pay as much per car in Europe, where there are 8.5 million diesel Volkswagens with the<br />emissions software, the cost would be more than $300 billion — enough to destroy the company.<br />In the United States, criminal and civil fines, settlements with owners<br />and other costs have come to more than $22 billion for fewer than 600,000 vehicles.<br />Six executives have so far been charged in the United States, and one engineer has pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud regulators and car owners.
