Porsche seeks to recover 200 million euros (approximately $234 million) from sibling automaker Audi for the costs of the diesel scandal, the German daily Bild reports. Managers at Porsche reportedly delivered the claim in written form to top management at Audi, the paper noted. The automaker seeks compensation for the cost of the retrofits to its diesel models that share engines with Audi and Volkswagen models, as well as for related customer compensation and legal services.
Porsche emerged relatively unscathed from the 2-year-old diesel crisis that gripped parent company Volkswagen and its brands — that’s despite the toll taken by a stop-sale order in the U.S. for its 2014-16 model year Cayenne Diesel after the Environmental Protection Agency issued a Notice of Violation for the 3.0-liter TDI engine shared with Audi and Volkswagen models. The stop-sale order was eventually lifted, allowing Porsche dealers to sell the Cayenne Diesel following a software update, but the delay and the procedure did not come without cost to Porsche dealers.
Back in Europe, the situation is a little different: In July of this year, the German transport ministry ordered a recall of the Cayenne Diesel, alleging additional software that used a “defense strategy” that is not used by the vehicle in real-world conditions, as transport minister Alexander Dobrindt explained it. Porsche admitted that it had discovered additional emissions software in the Cayenne Diesel during its internal probe and agreed to the recall.
News of Porsche’s demand for compensation from its sister company comes amid still-mounting costs for the diesel scandal itself; Volkswagen announced at the end of September that it will have to allocate an additional $3 billion to deal with the diesel recall and retrofit efforts in the U.S., bringing the total bill for the diesel crisis to approximately $30 billion.
“The reason is an increase in provisions relating to the buyback/retrofit program for 2.0-liter TDI vehicles, which is part of the settlements in North America that is proving to be far more technically complex and time consuming,” the company said in a statement.
Porsche’s demand for compensation, modest though it may seem in the scale of the diesel crisis, also comes on the heels of the alleged arrest of former Porsche R&D chief Wolfgang Hatz by prosecutors in Munich, Automotive News Europe reported. Hatz’s alleged arrest late last month, details of which have not been made public by prosecutors, makes him the highest-ranking VW executive to be taken into custody in connection with the diesel investigations in Germany and the U.S.