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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.

BMW, Ferrari, VW cars use tungsten mined by terrorists

Bloomberg Markets is reporting that BMW, Volkswagen and Ferrari have been using tungsten ore sourced from Columbia's FARC rebel terrorists. The extensive story focuses on Columbia's illegal mining trade and calls into question the provenance of the rare ore that is used not only in crankshaft parts production, but is also found in the world's computing and telecommunications industry for use in screens.
The ore is mined by the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army), and exported to Pennsylvania, where it is refined. The refined ore is then sent over to Austria, where a company called Plansee turns it into a finished product. Now, it's important to note that we aren't talking about the world's supply of tungsten here. In 2012, Plansee's American refinery purchased 93.2 metric tons of tungsten, valued at $1.8 million. That's peanuts, with the entire Colombian tungsten mining industry producing just one percent of the world's supplies.
That doesn't make indirectly supporting FARC any more acceptable, though. BMW, VW and Ferrari are all committed to not accepting mineral supplies from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is also in the grips of a guerrilla insurrection funded, in part, by illegal mining. The same commitment would figure to extend to Colombian mining, but as BMW points out, it's difficult for a multi-national manufacturer to know where every item in its supply chain comes from. A company spokesperson says as much, telling Bloomberg, "These few grams out of the billions of tons of raw materials passing through the BMW supply chain are of no practical relevance."

VW diesel incentives could be fuel for prosecutors

In the 2000s, Volkswagen was among the companies that lobbied the government to get buyers of diesel vehicles a tax credit. The automaker even brought some of these models to Washington to show them to politicians. The incentive eventually passed, and about 39,500 customers of the 2009 Jetta TDI and Jetta SportWagen TDI got a $1,300 benefit – for a total cost of around $51 million. Now, according to Reuters, that politicking might come back to bite the automaker when prosecutors finally get cases to trial. The US Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, and attorneys general in at least 29 states are already investigating VW, and politicians are pushing for criminal and civil actions against the company. According to Reuters, there could be several legal routes available, too. One option is to bring tax fraud charges, and that would require proving the automaker knew it was making untrue claims about the diesel models. There's also the option of bringing a case under the False Claims Act, which prohibits fraud against the government. According to Reuters, a maximum penalty under the law would be three times the tax credit and another $5,000 for each vehicle that received it. The company is also facing a class-action lawsuit from disgruntled owners. To aid its defense against all of these claims, VW has hired the same firm that worked with BP during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Outside of the US, prosecutors in Germany have just started to build a case against former CEO Martin Winterkorn for alleged fraud. In addition to these potential legal penalties, VW could be fined around $18 billion by the EPA for the emissions infractions. The agency's investigation is getting the added backing of its Canadian counterpart. Although, the actual settlement is expected to be far less.