The value of Volkswagen stock dropped sharply Monday shortly after the Frankfurt stock market opened. On Sunday, the head of the German carmaker apologized to VW owners. His comments followed reports that many of the company’s diesel-powered cars in the United States had bad computer software. The software reportedly was designed to give false information about the amount of pollutants the cars produced.
On Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered Volkswagen to fix almost 500,000 vehicles for intentionally breaking clean air laws. The agency says the cars released pollutants up to 40 times above the limits allowed under the federal Clean Air Act.
