Ugh, that's not necessarily a good thing. Diesel engines are considerably more efficient than petrol (and last considerably longer). True, I'd like to see them all replaced by electric, but the infrastructure and price just aren't quite there yet.
And if you read the original test BMW achieved lower emissions even without cheating.
And if you read further in the study ordered by the German ICCT last year (
http://www.theicct.org/real-world-exhaust-emissions-modern-diesel-cars ) and also the sources from VW (Volkswagen) then you see, that VW safed 200 € per car (for the additional catalysator) using that cheating software instead to get the permission from EPA.
So: It is not the diesel technology to blame but the _very_ stupid decisions and the marketing of VW USA. They safed 200 $ and payed 22 billion share loss, surely a significant fine, expensive repair of a lot of cars and a broken image...
This desaster may well be a turning point of the car industry. Expect news from other companies in the next week since they will measure real world emissions in other diesel and petrol cars soon. Winterkorn (head of VW, the world largest car manufacturer in 1st half of 2015) left allready and other things will change, too.