California gearing up for major enforcement action against Volkswagen

When the scandal broke out, Martin Wintercorn, the CEO of Volkswagen did what anyone in his position would have done in similar circumstances: saying sorry, at first and then buried the head in the sand while hoping it would slowly die down.

It turns out the iconic Beetle isn’t the only bug in the Volkswagen lineup.

Swiss authorities said today they had temporarily banned the sale of new Volkswagen brand diesel- engine models potentially equipped with software capable of tricking environmental tests.

Volkswagen’s worldwide pollution-cheating scandal threatens to backfire on diesel, the fuel that powers most new cars in Europe and is defended by manufacturers as a vital means to curb global warming.

Before a public angry over the Volkswagen scandal decides to burn Rudolph Diesel in effigy, a diesel advocacy group has issued a defense of emission-compliant diesel transport. The team consisted of two university professors, Gregory Thompson and Dan Carder as well as two students, Marc Besch and Arvind Thiruvengadam.

“These vehicles can operate within our regulations”, Herner said.

But, the trouble is that “it’s got chemicals in there and things that will burn that you don’t always know what they are”, although many of them are rich in sulfur, Hillebrand said.

Some now want to sell their cars, but they can’t get any interest because of the smog-test trickery.

They didn’t, and put out 40 times the amount of NOx legally allowed.

The team was puzzled.

It didn’t give any further details except that they are not used anymore.

Making “attractive and environmentally friendly” cars was key to its growth and its ability to weather economic trouble, Volkswagen wrote in its latest annual report.

Sperling predicts a slow increase in the sales of hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and fully electric cars-which now account for about three percent of USA auto sales-over the next 10 years.

It’s a small market-about 3 percent of the total U.S. passenger vehicle fleet, about 7-8 million cars-but one VW dominates. That prompted regulators in California to start their own investigation, which eventually uncovered the so-called defeat device – software that VW had installed to cheat on emissions tests. These run on either unleaded petrol or diesel, with both having their advantages.

Although diesel engines have always been the workhorse of the trucking and rail industries, the automotive industry has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the technology. The German government has said that those included cars in Europe but it’s not yet clear how many.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced yesterday that diesel cars would be re-tested in the UK. It also emits fewer carbon-dioxide emissions than standard petrol. The vehicles have been criticized for spewing out large quantities of nitrogen oxides, a source of air pollution.

The diesel industry is not faced with Volkswagen issue only, some countries have already stepped to change diesel cars trend. The rest of the time, the controls were turned off. They could have kept these controls on the entire time, but it would have defeated the objective of a diesel engine and deliver lesser performance.

But did Volkswagen really do anything wrong?

The revelations left dealers sitting on hundreds of diesel cars they could not sell.

What problems with emissions testing were known before Volkswagen’s admission?

Crisis management expert Quentin Langley told Sky News the scandal is “one of the biggest corporate scandals we have ever seen”. This could jump even more when you include the group’s other brands – Audi and Skoda.