Did Volkswagen cheat — Los Angeles Times
German-based auto manufacturer Volkswagen has skirted these regulations in its recent vehicles, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the company to make the cars more eco-friendly. “It was really happenstance that this was ultimately uncovered”.
“Had Volkswagen disclosed that the Affected Vehicles actually emitted multiple times the permitted levels of pollutants, including NOx, the Plaintiff and Class would not have purchased or leased Affected Vehicles, or would have paid considerably far less money”.
Surpassing Toyota as the world’s largest carmaker earlier this year, Volkswagen is considered the crown jewel of the German industry.
The researchers made their findings public in May 2014 in a report that got little attention. But, it was California regulators who finally got Volkswagen to admit to cheating on those tests, said Dave Clegern, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board. This case raises the worrying question of whether other carmakers have been tempted into manipulating emissions data, given that they are all under competitive pressure to look environmentally squeaky clean.
That is a reflection of the gravity of the scarcely credible deceit of American regulators who conducted pollution tests on cars VW advertised as “clean diesel”. And it’s unclear yet whether it will have to issue massive recalls in other markets. The company has also halted the production of 2015 and 2016 Volkswagen and Audi models powered with four-cylinder turbo diesel engines. People including a VW supervisory board member said Winterkorn may have to resign. To that end, they bought up smaller vehicle companies, 12 in all, including Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Porsche. During normal driving conditions, however, the software would turn on the full emission control System. That turned out to be a big clue for government investigators. These “defeat devices” would temporarily lower emissions when it detected that it was being inspected. The cheat caused the cars to emit 10-40 times the allowable pollution.
– VW may face fines up to billion.
In his statement, he said: “I am shocked by the events of the past few days”.
The ICCT chose West Virginia University’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions to do the study and decided to test diesel versions of the VW Passat, VW Jetta and BMW X5 – mainly because they were easily available, relatively affordable and met the tech specs.
“Why didn’t it work?” If it had, investigators may never have learned about VW’s intentional fraud.
While Volkswagen cars have no demonstrated safety problems, many owners are angry about paying a premium for a vehicle they believed was less harmful to the environment, lawyer Tony Merchant says. “If they had just fixed it then… the only answer I can surmise is it is not easy”.
Owners should expect to see a letter in the mail when the fix is available at their local VW dealer.
It is as yet unknown if any Australian vehicles had the software installed.