We're almost at the end of the first month of the Volkswagen scandal, which now includes 11 million cars and Leonardo DiCaprio. VW's US boss has testified to Congress, blaming a few rogue software engineers. All the while, questions have raged about VW Group's future: which projects are safe, which ones are on the chopping block, and how exactly will the company recover from this?

VW Group sells more cars around the world than any of its rivals—overtaking Toyota earlier this summer—and almost three quarters of the company is owned by the Porsche family and the government of Lower Saxony, so no one expects the company to go under. At the same time, intentionally cheating on federal emissions regulations is going to seriously impact VW's bottom line. Estimates of up to $40 billion in liability are being thrown around after taking a number of pending lawsuits into account.

VW's board has finally started to answer some of those swirling questions. For starters, there's going to be much more emphasis on electrification. Electric vehicles and hybrids have played more of a bit part at VW, compared to Toyota, GM, and domestic rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz. That's going to change with a standard electric architecture that can be used across multiple vehicles and brands.

VW Group isn't devoid of hybrid and EV know-how. Audi's Le Mans program has taught it a lot about high voltage automotive systems, and Porsche has a wealth of experience from the 918 Spyder, Panamera Hybrid, and even the 919 Hybrid racer. VW would be smart to leverage all these programs.

Cheap "clean diesel" is probably a thing of the past. The company is acknowledging reality and will only sell diesel powertrains with emissions-reducing exhaust treatments. Selective catalytic reduction and urea injection had previously been reserved for the group's larger V6 diesels, which are sold in more expensive cars. Surprisingly, the VW Phaeton is safe. VW's flagship has never been a sales success—the Bentley Continental that shared a lot with the previous Phaeton and was built in far greater numbers—so many thought that a replacement for the $85,000 executive sedan was a goner.

Instead, the new Phaeton will be a long-range EV. Last month's Frankfurt auto show gave us 300-mile EV concepts from Audi and Porsche, and we'd guess that the latter will end up contributing to the new Phaeton. Some questions remain unanswered, though. VW allegedly lost $4 million on every Bugatti Veyron it built; can it really afford a replacement? There's also no news about VW Group's motorsport programs. Audi's legendary Le Mans has been intimately associated with diesel since 2006, and right now the team's stiffest competition comes from stablemate (and deadly rival) Porsche, which uses a gasoline hybrid. The Audi motorsports program is funded via the company's road car predevelopment budget, so it may be protected, although a change from the combination of diesel combustion and flywheel hybridization wouldn't shock us.

Update: The AP is reporting that VW's 2016 diesel engine software may also be suspect, possibly creating a second violation of EPA regulations.