I would hardly call being forced to make EVs a punishment. In ten or twenty years, when EVs really take off, Tesla/Apple/Google/Samsung/etc are going to eat the lunch of anyone left behind.
Investing in electric vehicles could save VW in the long term. I would argue that if they don't want to make EVs of their own accord, then they don't deserve to be saved.
EDIT: I would also worry that if they're only making EVs because they're forced to, then they're only going to put in the minimum effort to make a crappy second-rate electric car. Flooding the market with low-quality, short-range electric cars doesn't seem like it will help push EVs into the mainstream any quicker.
I would hardly call being forced to make EVs a punishment.
Call it "white-collar punishment." It's not like they'll get an open-ended holding sentence in Rikers for stealing a backpack, the way kids in my neighborhood would. Or anything close to it.
No, for the VW execs it will be, at most: "OMG this is so brutal! My portfolio is going to take a big haircut over this! People aren't going to come to our dinner parties on Ibiza", etc.
Investing in electric vehicles could save VW in the long term. I would argue that if they don't want to make EVs of their own accord, then they don't deserve to be saved.
EDIT: I would also worry that if they're only making EVs because they're forced to, then they're only going to put in the minimum effort to make a crappy second-rate electric car. Flooding the market with low-quality, short-range electric cars doesn't seem like it will help push EVs into the mainstream any quicker.