Volkswagen’s first-half earnings exceeded market expectations, sending its shares up the most in three months, as its namesake car brand showed signs of recovering from the emissions-cheating scandal and started to benefit from cost cuts.

Volkswagen is set to escape fines from the German government even after cheating on emissions tests for years, reflecting a softer political stance that’s increasingly drawing ire following a generous deal for US drivers.

Volkswagen’s chief executive has rejected calls for the carmaker to compensate customers in Europe over the ‘Dieselgate’ emissions scandal along the lines of its $15bn (€13.5bn) in the US, telling a German newspaper a similar settlement would be inappropriate and unaffordable.

Volkswagen will invest more than €10bn by 2025 in areas like electric cars and ride-hailing as it seeks to reshape its business in the wake of its emissions-test cheating scandal, it said yesterday. 

Volkswagen shareholder Lower Saxony wanted to withhold its backing for the carmaker’s top management at a supervisory board meeting but relented to avoid further damaging the firm, a source close to the German federal state said.

Volkswagen Group’s finance chief said the car maker is once again in a position to issue bonds, now that the company has released audited full year results.

Volkswagen has begun its recall of the cars in Ireland which were affected by the global emissions scandal, with Golf 2lt TDI Blue Motion models to start being fixed next week.

Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Mueller has apologised in person to US president Barack Obama for the car-maker's emissions scandal.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today

Volkswagen shares climbed yesterday as it all but eliminated one front in the pollution scandal that has plagued the car maker for nearly three months, after the company’s suspicions of illegal discrepancies in carbon-dioxide emissions proved unfounded.

More bad news at VW, where 800,000 new cars are now deemed worth a recall because of failing to hit CO2 limits.

Volkswagen has posted its first quarterly loss in at least 15 years and said the €6.7bn set aside to cover the costs of its rigging of diesel emissions tests was likely just a start.

German prosecutors have carried out searches as part of their investigation into the Volkswagen emissions scandal, seeking material that would help clarify who was responsible for the cheating.

Volkswagen’s new chief executive has told more than 20,000 workers the company will have to review planned investments and contain costs as it works to overcome a scandal over vehicles that cheated on emissions tests.

In the many years I’ve been involved with the car industry I have come across many scandals and cover-ups involving auto-makers involving many aspects of their business, but I have never seen anything like the frenzy which has engulfed Volkswagen in the past fortnight.

Errant car manufacturer Volkswagen could face corporate manslaughter charges in the United States if its deliberate rigging of vehicle emission tests can be linked to pollution deaths by road users there.

German prosecutors have launched an investigation into fraud allegations against former Volkswagen boss Martin Winterkorn over the carmaker’s rigging of diesel emissions tests.

The EU could introduce tougher car emissions tests following the Volkswagen rigging scandal, said senior European officials.

Volkswagen rigged emission tests on 2.8m diesel vehicles in Germany, the country’s transport minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said yesterday, six times as many as it has admitted to falsifying in the US.

Martin Winterkorn’s days as head of Volkswagen appeared numbered yesterday after the German car maker said a scandal over falsified vehicle emission tests in the US could affect 11m of its cars worldwide.

Porsche has recalled a number of its 918 Spyder supercars, the company’s most expensive model, to fix a potential defect with rear-axle components.