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A former Audi CEO pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges related to the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, in which Audi parent company VW cheated emissions tests with illegal software.
Rupert Stadler admitted mistakes in defending sales of affected cars after news of the scandal broke in late 2015, the Associated Press reported. He entered this guilty plea under an agreement with judges and prosecutors that allowed probation instead of prison terms, and required Stadler to pay a fine of 1.1 million euros ($1.2 million).
Audi A7 TDI 2013
Stadler was charged with fraud and false certification by prosecutors, who accused him of overseeing the sale of cars with fraudulent software after September 2015, when the EPA issued a formal notice accusing VW of violating the Clean Air Act.
The former Audi boss was arrested in 2019 on charges related to the diesel scandal. The launch of the Audi E-Tron SUV, the automaker’s first mass-market EV, was delayed while being held back by officials.
Audi Etron 2019
After the diesel scandal broke, Stadler continued with plans to electrify Audi, with the arrival of one electric model every year. Audi has more or less stuck with it, while its parent VW has brought out the mother of all major causes in the form of its MEB platform for high-volume EVs.
Stadler’s $1.2 million personal fine was only a minuscule percentage of the total costs of the VW diesel scandal; in 2020 it was nearly $35 billion. That includes a $1.2 billion fine issued by German authorities in 2018, which is one of the largest fines Germany has ever imposed. The German government has also charged former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn, but the process has stalled due to his ill health, reports AP.
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