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Audi CEO's Dieselgate arrest threatens fragile truce among VW stakeholders

FRANKFURT — The arrest and detention of Audi's chief executive forces Volkswagen Group's competing stakeholders to renegotiate the delicate balance of power that has helped keep Audi CEO Rupert Stadler in office. Volkswagen's directors are discussing how to run Audi, its most profitable division, following the arrest of the brand's long-time boss on Monday as part of Germany's investigations into the carmaker's emissions cheating scandal. The supervisory board of Audi, meanwhile, has suspended Stadler and appointed Dutchman Bram Schot as an interim replacement, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Schot joined the Volkswagen Group in 2011 after having worked as president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Italia. He has been Audi's board member for sales and marketing since last September. The discussions risk reigniting tensions among VW's controlling Piech and Porsche families, its powerful labor representatives and its home region of Lower Saxony. VW has insisted the development of illegal software, also known as "defeat devices," installed in millions of cars was the work of low-level employees, and that no management board members were involved. U.S. prosecutors have challenged this by indicting VW's former chief executive Martin Winterkorn. Stadler's arrest raises further questions. Audi and VW said on Monday that Stadler was presumed innocent unless proved otherwise. Munich prosecutors detained Stadler to prevent him from obstructing a probe into Audi's emissions cheating, they said on Monday. Stadler is being investigated for suspected fraud and false advertising. Here are the main factors deciding the fate of Audi. Background: Audi's role in Dieselgate Volkswagen Group was plunged into crisis in 2015 after U.S. regulators found Europe's biggest carmaker had equipped cars with software to cheat emissions tests on diesel engines. The technique of using software to detect a pollution test procedure, and to increase the effectiveness of emissions filters to mask pollution levels only during tests, was first developed at Audi. "In designing the defeat device, VW engineers borrowed the original concept of the dual-mode, emissions cycle-beating software from Audi," VW said in its plea agreement with U.S. authorities in January 2017, in which the company agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine to reach a settlement with U.S. regulators.

The Bugatti Chiron sounds like an absolute monster

Most of us will never drive, or own, a Bugatti Chiron. Actually, most of us will never even see one. The closest we'll probably get is stuff like this video. So with that in mind, we bring the first of what will probably be many, many videos. This one comes directly from the floor of the Geneva Motor Show and was obtained by the team at Auto Express after they slipped the Chiron's handlers a few euros (probably). The Bug idles, then raises its spoiler and gives an ever-so-brief bark from its quad-turbocharged W16 engine. It sounds good and menacing, but how does it sound next to its older brother, the Veyron? Well, not surprisingly the two cars sound a lot alike. They use broadly identical 8.0-liter, 16-cylinder engines with four turbochargers, but the new Chiron has nearly 300 horsepower more than the Veyron Super Sport shown in the video below. That makes us think that once we finally see the Chiron in motion, it'll be a much faster, but not necessarily much noisier, Veyron. Check out the Chiron giving a bark at the top of the page, and then scroll down to see Shmee150 get a close up with a Veyron Super Sport, for a unofficial comparison of the two noises.

Bugatti teases something new on the horizon

Bugatti isn't keeping a secret that development on a follow-up to the Veyron is advancing, but the brand continues to be very cagey about what is coming. In a new teaser video, the company is at least giving us something to think about with a narrator asking viewers to "imagine the impossible." Sadly, the clip never shows an actual vehicle, but you can hear a growling engine at the end. While Bugatti isn't talking officially, rumors are heaping up about the future vehicle, reportedly called the Chiron. Spy shots show a design that so far is largely similar to the Veyron, but the 8.0-liter quad-turbo W16 reportedly is pushed to 1,500 horsepower and 1,106 pound-feet. The extra oomph comes thanks to the fitment of electric turbochargers to compliment the standard ones, and some reports even suggest a hybrid setup. During the unveiling of the final Veyron, company president Wolfgang Durheimer admitted, "Our challenge is to make the best even better." It's interesting to see Bugatti teasing something now because a previous report suggests a launch in 2016. Here's hoping, we get a glimpse sooner than that.