New charges and lengthy trial schedules
The November 2 trial is scheduled to open at 10 a.m., according to dpa. It is the fourth major fraud trial arising from the scandal. The three defendants are accused, among other things, of helping develop an illegal defeat device or failing to stop further development of the software. One also allegedly gave false testimony as a witness in a parallel Dieselgate case in February 2022, t-online reported.
That case concerns 9,041,184 Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda vehicles, according to court information reported by regionalHeute.de.
The fifth trial, opening November 24, involves seven former executives and employees. Prosecutors in Braunschweig have charged them with particularly serious cases of fraud and tax evasion, as well as criminal advertising. They allege that manipulated vehicles were promoted and sold in Europe and the United States as particularly environmentally friendly.
The November 24 case covers 9,058,621 vehicles from the same four brands. Both proceedings concern EA 189 and EA 288 diesel engines, which allegedly contained an illegal defeat device installed with the defendants' knowledge, according to the court.
The court has scheduled 150 hearing days for each trial, with proceedings planned through the end of 2028.
How the emissions scandal began
U.S. authorities exposed the manipulation in September 2015. Software in the diesel vehicles detected emissions tests and lowered nitrogen oxide output during testing, while emissions remained substantially higher in everyday driving.
Volkswagen admitted that month that it had installed illegal software in certain diesel engines used by its Volkswagen, Seat, Audi and Skoda brands. The company put the worldwide total at 11 million affected cars, according to t-online. The scandal cost Volkswagen billions and led to the departure of then-CEO Martin Winterkorn.
Earlier verdicts and separate cases
The first major German Dieselgate trial produced four fraud convictions on May 26, 2025, after roughly 170 hearing days spread over nearly four years. The Braunschweig court's sixth criminal chamber sentenced former diesel engine development chief Jens Hadler to four years and six months in prison and former drive electronics chief Hanno Jelden to two years and seven months.
Heinz-Jakob Neusser, the former development board member for the Volkswagen brand, received a 15-month suspended sentence. A former department head received a 22-month suspended sentence. Legal Tribune Online reported that the verdicts were not yet final and that defense lawyers had announced appeals on points of law.
Winterkorn's case was separated from that first major trial. The former chief executive, who led Volkswagen from 2007 to 2015, has been unable to stand trial because of poor health, and his proceedings have been suspended, according to t-online.
A separate case against Michael Horn, who headed Volkswagen Group of America from early 2014 until his resignation in March 2016, was discontinued in October 2026 subject to a payment of 48,500 euros to the state treasury. A court spokesperson confirmed the disposition to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Horn had publicly acknowledged mistakes days after the scandal emerged in September 2015, saying, "We totally screwed up".
