Skills shortage makes it harder for VW to meet new emissions rules
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess predicts ‘a titanic task’ ahead for the second half of 2018
Wolfsburg, Germany — Volkswagen warned that a shortage of engineers is hampering efforts to get its cars to meet new anti-pollution rules, clouding its sales outlook and overshadowing a forecast-beating 23% rise in underlying operating profit. VW has seen a raft of engine experts depart since admitting to systematic emissions cheating in September 2015. That has left the carmaker short of engineers now needed to work on models complying with stricter emissions tests, CEO Herbert Diess said on Wednesday. “Engine development expertise has been lost,” said Diess, explaining that getting engines certified for road use has become a lot harder under a new Worldwide Harmonized Light Duty Vehicles Test Procedure, known as WLTP, that takes effect from September. The car maker last week poached BMW engine development expert Markus Duesmann to help overcome the problem, but warned that delays in getting road certification will result in bottlenecks for certain model variants between August and...
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