VW ‘sorry’ after name-change prank backfires

Reporters reacted angrily to the stunt, with some saying it was tone-deaf coming from a company still recovering from the 2015 ‘dieselgate’ scandal, when the German automaker was forced to admit it had for years used cheating software in cars to skirt emissions tests. — AFP

FRANKFURT: Car giant Volkswagen said on March 31 it was sorry for a publicity stunt that duped major media outlets and was criticised by AFP news agency as a “breach of trust”.

The outrage came after Volkswagen just a day earlier said in a press release it would be changing the name of its US subsidiary to “Voltswagen” to highlight its shift towards electric cars.