VW's Second-Largest Shareholder Is Pressuring the Company to Come Clean

Will shareholders be able to get Volkswagen to do what government agencies couldn't?

Popular Mechanics

While Volkswagen is working on fixing its non-compliant diesel engines and trying to find a way to move past the scandal, details of what exactly led to the company installing cheat software that would circumvent emissions regulations still remain scarce. Pressure from government agencies hasn't turned up much, but perhaps shareholder pressure will be enough to force the company to come clean.

Automotive News reports the prime minister of Lower Saxony, Volkswagen's second-largest shareholder, has given the company a three-month deadline to open itself up and give a full account of what led to the company making the decision to cheat.

"There is a very legitimate concern on the part of U.S. authorities, the public and the company itself for a comprehensive investigation," Stephan Weil, prime minister of Lower Saxony and one of Volkswagen's supervisory board members, told Automotive News. "It's in the interest of VW to provide a complete clarification."

As Automotive News points out, even though Volkswagen insists the scandal is the result of the actions of a few "rogue engineers," other than some suspensions and former CEO Martin Winterkorn losing his job, the company doesn't necessarily look committed to moving past the scandal. A panel of company insiders is overseeing the investigation, new CEO Matthias Mueller has downplayed the company's guilt, and customers in the U.S. still don't know when their cars will be fixed.

Will the pressure of its second-largest shareholder finally be what forces Volkswagen to share the details of where the decision to cheat came from? Perhaps.

Last week, the company said it would present a report at the end of April during its annual shareholders' meeting, which coincides with Weil's three-month deadline. Hopefully we will get more details then.

Even with angry customers and huge fines likely coming in the future, Weil says he's still confident the company will recover.

"I am confident that later we'll be able to say the bottom line is, this crisis made Volkswagen stronger," said Weil.

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