EPA to Change Diesel Tests to Thwart VW-Like Cheating

VW has admitted to installing software on Volkswagen and Audi cars with four-cylinder diesel engines that switches on pollution controls when they are being tested.

The EPA announced the violations a week ago and said VW could face billions in fines.

Another suit has been filed on behalf of Volkswagen’s US shareholders.

“We have totally screwed up”, he told attendees at a Brooklyn gathering to launch the new Passat. It has enraged customers and devastated the company’s stock price.

As a business professor, I am always looking for teachable moments. Today, the three represent just a fraction of the betrayal almost 500,000 U.S. buyers feel after news of the deception broke.

It said big rebates from VW to spur sagging sales are likely in the next month or two. Its testing procedures have been criticized for being predictable and outdated, making it relatively easy for VW to cheat.

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

Anyone who has bought a new vehicle in recent years knows that the energy-efficiency stickers from the EPA in the United States and EnerGuide in Canada are exercises in creative embellishment. Consumers often don’t get around to getting recall work performed at dealerships – even for safety issues. For decades, they published fuel economy and emissions numbers that bore little reality to everyday driving conditions.

German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt said that VW had used defeat devices – software which turns on emissions control systems when a vehicle is being checked but not during normal driving – to manipulate engine tests in Europe. “This is one of the fixes they presented to us as a potential solution”. Gen. Eric T. Schneiderman.

Automobile manufacturers were reluctant to comment on diesel’s attributes in the midst of the Volkswagen scandal, which cost the group’s chief executive Martin Winterkorn his job on Wednesday. He laid the blame on the “terrible mistakes of a few people”, whom he did not identify. Emissions and mileage standards are a central component of vehicle and engine design, affecting weight, performance, and price.

“If we manage to achieve that then the Volkswagen Group with its innovative strength, its strong brands and above all its competent and highly motivated team has the opportunity to emerge from this crisis stronger than before”.

“The results showed the VW vehicles to be higher in real-world emissions by 15 to 30 times”, said Dr. Arvind Thiruvengadam, a professor engaged in the study.

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS Government regulators on both sides of the Atlantic vowed on Friday to toughen auto emissions tests in the wake of Volkswagen’s (VOWG_p.DE) admission it cheated on diesel emissions, but some officials and environmentalists doubted the pledges would be easily achieved.

To regain relevance Volkswagen hadn’t enjoyed in the US since hippies painted flowers on their microbuses and The Love Bug was playing at the local drive-in, Winterkorn had bet that Americans, who were rapidly shifting to Japanese-made hybrids, could be convinced to try diesel.