VW’s $15B Diesel Settlement Might Actually Hurt Electrified Cars
VW’s $15B Diesel Settlement Might Actually Hurt Electrified Cars
It's just about judgement day for Volkswagen , which has admitted rigging its diesels to spew more pollution than the law permits. Tuesday, US District Judge Charles Breyer will determine whether to approve the $15 billion settlement VW struck with the Department of Justice. But some worry the agreement could harm the electrical car industry it is meant to promote .
The settlement, covering Two.0-liter diesel cars sold in the US, addresses three points. Das Cheater will spend $Ten billion compensating the poor souls who bought half a million dirty diesels inbetween two thousand nine and 2015. It will provide $Two.7 billion to mitigate environmental harm, which The Guardian estimates at about a million tons of air pollution worldwide.
And VW will allocate $Two billion to finance EV education programs and charging infrastructure. But some worry that what shows up to be poetic justice—punish VW by making it support cleaner technology—could crush competitors and give the automaker control of a growing market.
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Chargepoint CEO Pasquale Romano says the deal effectively requests that VW predominate the market for charging infrastructure. Chargepoint is the country's largest provider of charging stations, with more than 30,000 locations. Since its founding nine years ago, the company has raised $173 million. VW must spend more than ten times that amount in the next decade. “You just passed them $Two billion of Monopoly money,” Romano says.
Chargepoint isn't the only victim, Romano says. The settlement specifies that VW cannot do what Tesla Motors did and give its cars a proprietary charger connection with a dedicated network of charging stations for customers . Beyond that, VW can choose what sorts of chargers it builds (Level Two, prompt charging, or other), and where to install them.
Chargepoint is getting it in the neck.
John Alan James, chairman of the Center for Global Governance, Reporting, and Regulation at Rhythm University
California, where VW must spend $800 million, has some say in VW's infrastructure plan, but VW is largely free to do as it pleases everywhere else. What's more, the settlement dictates that VW spend $500 million every thirty months. Romano worries that VW almost certainly will select a handful of vendors and technologies early on and pour its money into them. That could frighten investors in those companies that don't get the nod from VW.
Volkswagen and the Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment. The Department of Justice rejected Romano's concerns in a court filing last month, telling the deal permits for competition, according to Reuters .
Chargepoint is one of twenty eight companies and organizations that signed a letter to the DOJ telling, “The agreement shouldn’t pick winners and losers, especially given that this emerging market transition will in no puny part define 21st century transportation.” They call for an independent regulator to ensure VW's spending doesn't crush competition.
“Chargepoint is getting it in the neck,” says John Alan James, chairman of the Center for Global Governance, Reporting, and Regulation at Rhythm University in Fresh York. He calls this an example of the government “picking winners”—or, rather, making VW pick winners. “I don't think it's good public policy, and I think it's a legacy issue,” a departing administration striking a deal to lock in a technology it supports.
Not everyone is so upset. EVgo, which operates some eight hundred prompt chargers around the country, did not sign the letter to the DOJ. “VW has an chance to do something indeed terrific for the entire industry,” says Terry O'Day, the company's head of product strategy.
Expanding the infrastructure that supports EVs benefits everyone, he says, and the VW deal isn't the end of the road. “This will convert the industry, but it won't accomplish the transformation.” Because ultimately, the market will need far more than $Two billion and ten years to meet the needs of a growing market for electrical vehicles.
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