File stolen from Dieselgate prosecutors office in Germany, while Audi reiterates electric car plans

The German press is reporting that a file (dossier) of research data in the Dieselgate (or what the Germans call Abgas-Affäre) investigation has been stolen from the prosecutors office. The Public Prosecutor is investigating this theft, which is disturbing even though it’s described as more of an annoyance because the file only contained public information. Also, Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler said in an employees meeting that part of Audi’s response to the Dieselgate scandal will be more focus on electric vehicles, echoing statements from VW’s top brass last week.

According to Donaukourier, workers in the prosecutors office believe they’d last seen the file on October 9, and the following Monday it was discovered to be missing.

According to Bild (the news site that broke this news), a dozen or so people were interviewed about the missing file. While the Government says the loss of this file isn’t terribly important, all the information it contained came from public sources, several sources are said to be disturbed and concerned simply that the file had been stolen at all.

Austrian news website, Futurezone, reports that Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler held a staff meeting of 7,000 employees at Ingolstadt to talk about plans to deal with Dieselgate. Because of the scandal, Audi will have to recall over 2 million vehicles. Part of Audi’s response will be to start delivery of an electric SUV in 2018 – the Audi e-tron quattro – and shortly thereafter bring another electric car to the market.

VW Group leadership has promised for years that by 2018 the group will take a leadership position in the electric vehicle industry. That can’t happen a moment too soon.

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About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.