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Volkswagen receives ‘Dieselgate’ lawsuit in Germany amid new EV plant announcements
Auto titan Volkswagen is facing a class-action lawsuit from German customers who purchased diesel vehicles equipped with emissions-cheating defeat devices. The new suit was made possible by a new legislation that took effect on November 1, which was expedited to beat a year-end statute of limitations for claims against Volkswagen.
Justice Minister Katarina Barley noted that an estimated two million Volkswagen owners could benefit from the new law. While the initial complaint against the German automaker is starting with just ten disgruntled Volkswagen drivers, the case, if deemed admissible by a judge, would be opened to other owners who wish to take part in the lawsuit as well. Thus, anyone who purchased a Volkswagen vehicle or one of the group’s Audi, Skoda, or Seat brands that are equipped with a diesel EA 189 engine from November 2008, would likely be qualified to file claims against the company.
Lawyer Ralf Stoll, part of the legal team coordinating the suit, called the case a legal “milestone,” while stating that “several tens of thousands” of VW owners could join the lawsuit, particularly since taking part in the complaint is free of charge. In a statement to the DPA News Agency, Klaus Müller of Germany’s VZBV consumer federation noted that November 1 would be a day that Volkswagen would remember.
“Volkswagen will remember this day as the moment the kid gloves of the politicians were replaced by the boxing gloves of consumer advocates,” he said.
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- Drone flies closely over the thousands of VW Diesel vehicles being stored at the Rivian Factory. [Photo: Jim Finch]
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- Thousands of VW Diesels being Stored at Rivian Factory. [Credit: Jim Finch/Teslarati]
Thousands of VW Diesels being Stored at Rivian Factory. [Credit: Jim Finch/Teslarati]
Christian Saefken, who purchased his Skoda Oktavia without knowing that his vehicle was equipped with an emissions testing cheat device, is among the owners who might join the lawsuit if it does go through.
“They have played us for fools. I wish they had been more honest from the start,” he said.
Volkswagen’s high-profile dieselgate scandal has resulted in steep penalties for the legacy carmaker. Since admitting that it knowingly cheated emissions tests, Volkswagen had paid out more than $31.9 billion in dieselgate costs, a portion of which went to around half a million US drivers who were offered buybacks and up to $10,000 in compensation.
In Germany, the legacy carmaker has paid authorities $2 billion in fines, though customers have only been offered software upgrades. Despite this, Volkswagen appears to be preparing to fight the upcoming class-action lawsuit, stating that the complaints have “no legal basis” since the company had already complied with all recall requirements.
“All the cars are technically sound and roadworthy,” a statement from the company noted.
Volkswagen’s new legal battle against diesel car owners comes amidst the company’s announcements for new electric car plants in Germany. According to a EuroNews report, the legacy carmaker is considering converting its plants in Emden and Hannover, Germany into pure-EV facilities. The German publication noted that the plans would be discussed in an upcoming strategy review on November 16.
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess recently expressed the company’s commitment to becoming a competitive player in the electric car market. The CEO even laid the gauntlet on first movers like Tesla, stating that by 2020, Volkswagen would be offering electric vehicles that match Tesla’s electric cars for half the price.
“We are coming on very strong now. We have invested 30 billion euros ($33.9 billion) in electromobility, we have already rededicated a plant in Zwickau, and we are building an electric vehicle plant in Shanghai. Truly highly attractive vehicles will begin arriving from Volkswagen as early as 2019. We will come in 2020 with vehicles that can do anything like Tesla and are cheaper by half,” he said.
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SpaceX Starship Flight 13 faces wrath of the Texas skies
SpaceX pushed Starship Flight 13 to Friday, blaming weather instead of the previous engine issues.
SpaceX called off Thursday’s launch attempt of Starship Flight 13, pushing the mission to Friday because of weather tied to Tropical Storm Bertha. The company confirmed the delay on X, noting “Now targeting Friday, July 24 for Starship’s thirteenth flight test, due to weather. A key objective for the flight test is to get clear imagery from the ground of Starship’s heatshield as it flies at a higher dynamic pressure during ascent, which won’t be possible with today’s weather conditions.”
This is the second delay for Flight 13 in two weeks. SpaceX first tried to launch the mission on July 16, but the countdown ended in an automated abort at T-0 when four of Super Heavy Booster 20’s 33 Raptor engines failed to ignite. Musk said at the time that two Raptors would need to be removed and replaced, as Teslarati reported. The company spent the following week destacking Ship 40 and Booster 20, swapping engines, and running leak checks before restacking the vehicle on Pad 2 Wednesday night, according to Spaceflight Now’s live coverage.
Unlike the engine problem, Thursday’s delay has nothing to do with the hardware. SpaceX wants clean footage of Starship’s heat shield captured from the ground as the vehicle flies through max dynamic pressure, something the storm’s cloud cover over South Texas would not allow. The company said visibility should improve for Friday’s attempt, with the same 90 minute window opening at 5:45 p.m. CT.
Flight 13 will be the second outing for the V3 versions of Starship and Super Heavy, following their debut on Flight 12 in May. The mission carries 20 production Starlink V3 satellites, the first time SpaceX has flown operational satellites rather than mass simulators on Starship. Six of those satellites are fitted with cameras to inspect the heat shield from a different angle during ascent, giving engineers a second data source beyond the ground imagery the weather is currently blocking.
Booster 20 will attempt a boostback burn and a splashdown landing burn in the Gulf of America, while Ship 40 follows a suborbital trajectory toward a landing in the Indian Ocean. The flight plan largely mirrors Flight 12, though the booster will run a more aggressive ascent burn after max Q this time, and the ship’s heat shield includes load sensing tiles meant to measure stress at the higher dynamic pressure SpaceX is targeting.
If Friday’s attempt succeeds, Flight 13 could be the last suborbital test in the program. SpaceX is already looking to push for an orbital flight on Flight 14.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) endured one of its sharpest single-day declines in years on July 23, tumbling approximately 14.5 percent and closing near $320 after opening the session around $374. The drop erased more than $140 billion in market value amid heavy trading volume and left the shares at multi-week lows.
The sell-off followed the company’s second-quarter 2026 results, released the previous evening. Tesla reported record revenue of $28.2 billion, up 26 percent year over year, driven by a Q2-record 480,126 vehicle deliveries. Energy storage deployments also rose strongly.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Yet profitability disappointed sharply. Operating income fell 57 percent to $398 million, compressing the operating margin to just 1.4 percent. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.33, well below the roughly $0.53 analysts had expected. Free cash flow turned negative by $1.1 billion as capital expenditures surged 142 percent to $5.8 billion, largely tied to accelerated spending on artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems.
The losses on capex were expected, as Tesla said it would be spending heavily in 2026.
Investors also reacted to lingering uncertainty surrounding key product timelines. During the Earnings Call, management reiterated ambitions for Robotaxi deployment and the Optimus humanoid robot, but offered limited new concrete milestones, renewing questions about execution pace that have long accompanied Tesla’s ambitious roadmap.
The magnitude of the decline places it among Tesla’s more severe one-day percentage losses since its 2010 initial public offering. Historically, the two largest single-day drops (split-adjusted) remain September 8, 2020, when shares fell 21.1 percent amid broader market volatility and valuation concerns, and January 13, 2012, with a 19.3 percent plunge during the company’s early growth struggles.
Other notable declines include an 18.6 percent drop on March 16, 2020, at the onset of pandemic-related market turmoil. Thursday’s move ranks roughly ninth on the all-time list but stands out as the steepest in more than a year.
Despite the short-term pain, Tesla’s long-term trajectory has repeatedly recovered from such volatility. The latest results underscore both the strength of its core automotive and energy businesses and the near-term costs of heavy investment in next-generation technologies.
Elon Musk clapped back at France’s decision to withhold the approval for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised system, projecting a clear and blunt message to French Transport Minister Phillippe Tabarot, after he publicly rejected the technology in its current form.
Tabarot outlines several concerns with Tesla Full Self-Driving in a detailed video statement, where he said, “The safety trade-offs are not yet sufficient to authorize it as it currently stands,” he said. He emphasized that FSD is not a true self-driving system and that the driver remains fully responsible.
Key issues Tabarot also brought up included allowing speeding when surrounding traffic exceeds limits and what he believes are insufficient guarantees of driver attention during complex urban maneuvers such as lane changes, intersections, and roundabouts.
Delaying the approval of FSD in France will cost lives
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
While acknowledging technological progress and France’s support for autonomous innovation, Tabarot stressed that deployment must prioritize road safety. He noted ongoing technical discussions with Tesla, the Netherlands, and other European partners, with further ecosystem meetings planned for the fall.
Musk’s rebuke highlights the human cost of regulatory caution. Tesla’s latest safety reports provide compelling data supporting accelerated adoption. In the most recent 12-month period, vehicles using FSD (Supervised) recorded one major collision per approximately 5.1 million miles driven, dramatically better than the U.S. national average of one crash per 698,000 miles.
Even Tesla vehicles driven manually with active safety features outperform the average by a wide margin. These figures come from billions of real-world miles of telemetry, showing FSD vehicles involved in far fewer incidents than both manual Teslas and the broader U.S. fleet.
Critics argue Tesla’s comparisons require careful scrutiny regarding reporting thresholds and fleet demographics, yet the data consistently positions FSD as a potential lifesaver. With road fatalities remaining a leading cause of death worldwide, Musk contends that proven safer technology should not face prolonged bureaucratic hurdles.
France’s measured approach reflects the broader European regulatory caution, which many, especially Musk, have been critical of in the past. However, as autonomous systems from Tesla and competitors like Waymo demonstrate superior safety in independent studies, pressure is mounting for harmonized approvals.
Musk’s warning carries the belief that every month of delay may equate to avoidable tragedies on European roads.
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 faces wrath of the Texas skies
Tesla stock tumbles after earnings, one of its sharpest single-day declines
