Norway’s oil wealth fund will sue Volkswagen over the emissions scandal that left about 11 million cars with a “defeat device” designed to falsify emissions tests on diesel engines, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The Norwegian fund holds a 1.64 percent stake in Volkswagen’s voting shares, making it the biggest investor that does not also have a seat on the supervisory board. It is the fourth largest shareholder in the company, following Porsche Automobil Holdings, the State of Lower Saxony, and Qatar Holdings.
The Norwegian investors see the scandal as a financial loss in the area of hundreds of millions of dollars. Volkswagen lost $6.2 billion in 2015 after the scandal came to light, and agreed to buy back about 500,000 cars. Additionally, Volkswagen has set aside 7.8 billion euros ($8.8 billion) to cover the costs incurred during the scandal. The wealth fund will join an existing class-action suit against the automaker in the German courts.
Volkswagen “should have known” about the installation of the defeat devices, said Petter Johnsen, the manager of the fund.
The United States Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are also suing Volkswagen over the deception and the resulting emissions. Volkswagen has agreed to contribute to a fund promoting green technology as part of one of the many legal cases. Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller also said that Volkswagen plans to produce 20 new models of all-electric cars by 2020, in part because of a zero-emissions plan spurred by the emissions scandal.