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Rupert Stadler, the former chief executive of the automaker Volkswagen's Audi division, has agreed to plead guilty to charges in Germany related a vast emissions cheating scandal, becoming the highest-ranking executive to be convicted in the case, which changed the direction of the car industry. Mr. Stadler, 60, who was also a member of Volkswagen’s management board, was accused of allowing diesel cars made by Audi to remain on sale even after the parent company admitted in 2015 that millions of its vehicles were equipped with software designed to mask excess emissions. The scandal cost Volkswagen tens of billions of dollars in fines, legal settlements and lawyers’ fees and had a lasting impact on the auto industry. It inspired European lawmakers to impose much tighter limits on auto emissions, accelerating a transition from internal combustion engines to electric cars. Volkswagen became one of the first big German automakers to invest heavily in battery power, which executives saw as a way to restore the company’s tarnished reputation.
Across the countries that use the euro currency, inflation rates varied. Food prices remained stubbornly high, while government intervention to tame the inflated cost of energy began to take hold. That deal is expected to set a precedent for other pay talks and could threaten the European Central Bank’s forecast that eurozone wage growth will peak this year. What’s Next: A decision by the European Central Bank. The inflation data will influence the European Central Bank’s decision on whether to continue raising interest rates in an effort to bring down inflation.
The critical importance of heat pumps to the German economy was underscored this week when the sale of a family-owned maker of the heating machines to a U.S. company prompted a review by the government in Berlin. Carrier Global Corp. said Tuesday that it had agreed to pay 12 billion euros, or about $13.3 billion, to acquire a unit of Viessmann Group, based north of Frankfurt, that produces heat pumps. The cash-and-stock deal would allow Carrier to expand in Europe and capitalize on the green energy transition underway on the continent, the company said. It also comes days after Berlin announced a ban on new furnaces fired by fossil fuels, starting next year. “Climate change, sustainability requirements and geopolitical factors are driving an unprecedented energy transition in Europe,” David Gitlin, chief executive of Carrier, said in announcing the deal.
It began as a movement of pacifists chaining themselves to fences outside nuclear power plants. Germany’s three remaining reactors will be shut down by Saturday — ending nuclear power generation in Europe’s largest economy. Britain, Finland and France are doubling down on nuclear energy as a source of reliable electricity and extremely low carbon emissions. Last year, Poland signed with Westinghouse Electric to build its first nuclear power plant, some 200 miles east of the German border. In the United States, the Biden administration is backing technology to build a new generation of smaller nuclear reactors as a tool of “mass decarbonization.”
As Washington seeks to throttle economic ties with Beijing, two powerful engines of the German economy, Volkswagen and the chemical company BASF, are broadening their huge Chinese investments. Volkswagen, which has more than 40 plants in China, announced a new effort to tailor models to Chinese customers’ wishes, with features like in-dash karaoke machines, and will invest billions in local partnerships and production sites. It’s part of a theme unveiled by the German automaker last year: “In China for China.”BASF, with 30 production facilities in China, is pushing ahead with plans to spend 10 billion euros ($10.9 billion) on a new chemical production complex that would rival in size its massive headquarters complex in Ludwigshafen, which covers about four square miles. Throughout Germany, executives are aware such investments run contrary to efforts by the United States to isolate China economically. They counter that revenue from China is essential for their businesses to thrive and grow in Europe.
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