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Which car should win 2015 World Green Car of the Year?

There were three finalists for the World Green Car of the Year announced about a month ago at the Geneva Motor Show: the BMW i8, the Mercedes-Benz S 500 Plug-In Hybrid and the Volkswagen Golf GTE. With the New York Auto Show upon us and the winner scheduled to be announced tomorrow, we thought it's high time to ask our readers which one should win. There were seven other vehicles named to the finalists list: the Hyundai x35/Tucson Fuel Cell, the Volvo XC90 T8 Twin Engine, the Audi A3 Sportback E-Tron, the BMW X5 xDrive40e, the Kia Soul EV, the Nissan e-NV200 and the Opel Adam 1.0 Direct Injection Turbo ecoFLEX Start. Would you have named one of these to the top three list instead? POLL 14386429 Green BMW Mercedes-Benz Volkswagen 2015 ny auto show world green car of the year vw golf gte

VW recalling all its diesels in Australia

VW's Australian division has announced it will recall all of its diesel vehicles that are believed to be programmed to cheat government emissions-testing process, Reuters says. VW Australia will recall almost 100,000 cars as a result. About two-thirds of the vehicles to be recalled in Australia will be Volkswagen-branded light-duty vehicles, while about 17,000 will be commercial vehicles. About 5,000 vehicles will be Skodas. New VW CEO Matthias Muller (former chief Martin Winterkorn stepped down towards the beginning of the diesel scandal) said last week that VW recalls in Europe would start in January, with all cars slated to be "fixed" by the end of next year. As for US VWs, any massive recall of the nearly half-million affected diesels here will be difficult to make work. VW is still figuring out how to deal with the 2016 model-year diesels, which are new a few months away from seeing the light of day because of the brouhaha. The company has been forced to resubmit those diesels to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for more testing. Back in Germany, local investigators have searched Volkswagen's headquarters in Wolfsburg for more information on the so-called "defeat device" software built into VW's diesel engines. Volkswagen has set aside $7.3 billion to deal with the fallout from the scandal after estimating that as many as 11 million of its diesel-powered worldwide vehicles use software that essentially games emissions tests system. Without this cheater software, VW's diesels perform worse when they follow emissions regulations. Related Videos: News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Paul J. Richards / Getty Government/Legal Green Volkswagen Emissions Diesel Vehicles vw diesel scandal

Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller throws hat back in ring for VW CEO job

Toward the end of February it got leaked that Porsche CEO Matthias Muller was being promoted to Volkswagen's supervisory board. Muller's credentials and his success over 36 years at the VW Group have, for observers, put his name in the pool of potential candidates to succeed current group CEO Martin Winterkorn when Winterkorn retires in two years. But the 61-year-old Muller told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung earlier in February, "It's no solution to put a 63-year-old at the head of Volkswagen," and the statement was taken to mean he wasn't considering the job. Muller now says the quote was misunderstood. In a report in Automotive News, the newly minted board member says he was commenting on what it would mean for the supervisory board and the Group if they nominated a 63-year-old to replace a 69-year-old - that it wouldn't result in a "generation change." However, if that's what they choose to do, Muller feels great: "I stand ready to take over any assignment," he said. Muller's name re-enters the candidacy pool, but we still have no idea who leads the running for the role and Winterkorn isn't saying a word. It could be three years before we know: Winterkorn's contract concludes at the end of next year but there is speculation he'll re-up for two years to see out the end of the Strategy 2018 initiative.