We’ve seen many months of disastrous crisis management at Volkswagen Group. What a mess.

Since late last year, VW has been reeling from revelations that millions of its diesel engines were equipped with software designed to fool emissions testers. As a result, the company’s share price has tanked and some estimate this scandal could cost VW as much as $80 billion (US) in combined lost revenue, consumer settlements and government fines.

Yet five months into this story, VW’s leadership seems incapable of stanching the bleeding. In fact, VW has delayed its financial statements for 2015 “due to remaining open questions relating to the consequences of the emissions issue and the resulting valuation issues.”

VW is bleeding the death of a thousand cuts. Reuters and Bloomberg report that VW’s senior management was warned more than a year before the scandal broke (in September 2015) that apparently skeptical U.S. officials we snooping around VW’s so-called clean-diesel technology.

2016 Golf Sportwagon

2016 Golf

VW vehicles powered by the company’s 2.0-litre TDI diesel engine — vehicles such as the Jetta, Golf and Beetle convertible shown here — have been tainted by the emissions cheating scandal that threatens to bring down the entire company. Or cost it as much as $80 billion (US).

Now the U.S. Justice Department is suing VW for up to $46 billion (US) for allegedly violating environmental law. New Jersey’s attorney general is also suing VW and its Audi and Porsche brands for having “perpetrated a massive fraud upon consumers” and for profiting greatly “from its misconduct” in selling the vehicles.

Automotive News reports that this six-month scandal is dragging down dealership earnings and their blue sky values — the intangible value of a store beyond its physical assets. More worrisome for VW, a Bloomberg report says the U.S. Justice Department may treat VW harshly for lying to the EPA (federal Environmental Protection Agency) and California. Government officials may choose to make an example of VW for not just cheating, but lying and obfuscating. VW must surely know what former President Richard Nixon learned in Watergate: it’s not the crime but the cover-up that does the damage.

The current state of affairs is shocking. Indeed, VW started well with its Sept. 25, 2015 statement: “There is absolutely no excuse for the manipulations which have deeply shocked Volkswagen. The company will leave no stone unturned in getting to the bottom of this, will call those responsible to account and take the necessary actions.”

Since then, VW has sparred with government officials, failing to conclude an agreement on acceptable fixes and recalls for cars that exceed pollution standards. Day after day, VW’s environmental debt worsens, as the company appears to stall and equivocate. Regulators have been left to keep a running tab of the potential harm caused by over-polluting vehicles still on the road.

VW seems unwilling or unable to admit everything, suffer the humiliation, swallow its corporate pride and deliver a quick fix. And thus VW seems poised on the brink of an unstoppable downward spiral. What’s happening at VW can only be stopped by quick and drastic measures.

Fortunately for VW, help is at hand and it appears to be coming from the EPA. U.S. authorities, reports Reuters sourcing the German newspaper Welt am Sonn, have asked VW to produce electric vehicles in the U.S. as a way of making up for rigging emission tests.

Unnamed sources say the EPA has asked VW to produce electric vehicles at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. VW should also help build a network of charging stations for U.S. electric vehicles, says the report.

The way out for VW is very clear, then. First, immediately conclude an agreement with regulators for the appropriate fixes and recalls and then very publicly beg for forgiveness. Acts of public humility will not be easy for a German company known for insularity and arrogance, but these are demanding times for VW.

Next, VW needs to move forward by massively promoting its long-range plans for plug-in hybrids and high-volume electric vehicles. VW needs to commit to producing electrified vehicles in the U.S. and pledge itself to building a network of charging stations, just like the EPA apparently suggests.

If a humbled, chastened VW pivots by making the discussion all about forward-looking technologies and good corporate citizenship, then there is hope and the potential for a turnaround. The world loves a redemption story.

But if VW continues to let this scandal fester, it could very well kill the entire company as we know it.