Volkswagen emissions scandal
Introduction By Russell Hotten Business reporter, BBC News 10 December 2015
Topic of this research On 18 September 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Volkswagen Group, after it was found that the car maker had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate certain emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing. The programming caused the vehicles' nitrogen oxide (NOx) output to meet US standards during regulatory testing, but emit up to 40 times more NOx in real-world driving. Volkswagen put this programming in about eleven million cars worldwide and in 500,000 in the United States, during model years 2009 through 2015.
Company Profile The Volkswagen Group with its headquarters in Wolfsburg is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. In 2014, the Group increased the number of vehicles delivered to customers to 10.137 million (2013: 9.731 million). The share of the world passenger car market amounts to 12.9 percent. In Western Europe, more than one in four new cars (25.1 percent) is made by the Volkswagen Group. Group sales revenue in 2014 totaled €202 billion (2013: €197 billion), while profit after tax amounted to €11.1 billion (2013: €9.1 billion). The Group comprises twelve brands from seven European countries: Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN.
What is Volkswagen accused of? It's been dubbed the "diesel dupe". In September, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that many VW cars being sold in America had a "defeat device" - or software - in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. The German car giant has since admitted cheating emissions tests in the US. VW has had a major push to sell diesel cars in the US, backed by a huge marketing campaign trumpeting its cars' low emissions. The EPA's findings cover 482,000 cars in the US only, including the VW-manufactured Audi A3, and the VW models Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat. But VW has admitted that about 11 million cars worldwide, including eight million in
Europe, are fitted with the so-called "defeat device".The company has also been accused by the EPA of modifying software on the 3 liter diesel engines fitted to some Porsche and Audi as well as VW models. VW has denied the claims, which affect at least 10,000 vehicles. In November, VW said it had found "irregularities" in tests to measure carbon dioxide emissions levels that could affect about 800,000 cars in Europe - including petrol vehicles. However, in December it said that following investigations, it had established that this only affected about 36,000 of the cars it produces each year.
How VW was rumbled There is a back story here, starting in May 2014 when a study in West Virginia University found conflicting emissions results on a 2012 Jetta and 2013 Passat diesel. They alerted the CARB and EPA - leading to the current scandal. And we fear this one has a long way to run..
Tim Pollard (Digital editor-in-chief, CAR website gatekeeper, motoring news magnet Published: 25 November 2015)
Research Aim and Objectives
This scandal raises a few larger questions, though: Why did Volkswagen cheat in the first place? Why was it so easy for the company to evade regulators for years? Can we say it was a corporate misbehavior? (Updated by Brad Plumer on September 23, 2015, 11:43 a.m. ET) Volkswagen hasn't explained exactly why it cheated, but outside analysts have a good guess. The NOx emission controls likely degraded the cars' performance when
they were switched on — the engines ran hotter, wore out more quickly, and got poorer mileage. Some experts have suggested that the emission controls may have affected the cars' torque and acceleration, making them less fun to drive. (Indeed, some individual car owners have been known to disable their cars' emission controls to boost performance, though this is against the law.) In other words, Volkswagen wasn't able to produce diesel cars that had the ideal mix of performance, fuel economy, and low pollution. (Or, at least, it couldn't do this profitably.) So the company "solved" this trade-off by sacrificing cleanliness and loosening the pollution controls. And it accomplished this via software designed to deceive regulators. This was wildly illegal, and Volkswagen got caught.
DUE TO HIGHER NOX EMISSIONS, DIESEL CARS DIDN'T CATCH ON IN THE US FOR MANY YEARS
Volkswagen And The Failure Of Corporate Social Responsibility Enrique Dans
The Volkswagen case represents above all an absolute failure in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The company deliberately set out to design a means to circumvent emissions control—a stratagem known at the highest levels—with the aim of giving the company an unfair advantage over its competitors that made it the world’s number one car maker, in large part on the basis of its supposedly environmentally friendly cars; meanwhile it was poisoning the planet. Volkswagen did all it could to hide the fact that its diesel engines were highly contaminating. How can the head of CSR deny he knew anything about what was going on? Either that person wasn’t doing their job, or they were colluding. The conclusion can only be that for Volkswagen, CSR is a marketing exercise. The Volkswagen case shows in stark contrast that we must reinvent CSR. The people who head these departments must be made responsible for their companies’ actions, even if that means going to jail. These people will have to be very well paid in return for assuming this responsibility, as well as having budgets that will allow them to develop systems to find out what really goes on in their companies. The Volkswagen crisis highlights the failings of capitalism, of a
system that has closed its eyes to the reality of the future, and a clearly unsustainable future. http://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2015/09/27/volkswagenand-the-failure-of-corporate-social-responsibility/#23f424046128
Solution In theory, governments can find ways to make cheating harder. Starting with model year 2017 vehicles, European regulators are going to start requiring automakers to test their passenger cars on the road in addition to laboratory tests. That sort of regime would've made it harder for Volkswagen to pull its little stunt. But it's also unlikely this is the last time we'll see an automaker come up with a fiendishly clever way to cheat
Has this harmed the environment? Emissions have not only been much higher than we thought, but the promise of "clean diesel" might also be dead. Analysis conducted by The Guardian suggests that Volkswagen's rigging may have meant that an extra 1m tonnes of NOx pollution have been emitted each year. Health experts have claimed that nearly 12,000 lives a year in Britain are being lost because emissions have not fallen.
Will this put you off buying a Volkswagen vehicle in the future? Yes, the rigging of emissions is no joke 56
No, I still think it is an excellent car manufacturer 33 Don't know - is the issue really that serious? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11880921/Made-inGermany-lies-in-the-gutter-after-Volkswagen-caught-cheating.html
“‘Made in Germany’ in the gutter,” said German newspaper Bundesdeutsche Zeitung.
Exhaust manipulators does not trust you: investors withdraw VW confidence, the stock plunges 23 percent into the red. In the US, diesel vehicles are taken off the market; first cancellation claims are being made. Frankfurt / Wolfsburg Volkswagen is in the crossfire review: After the Wolfsburg carmaker tampering with emission levels in the Sunday US has admitted that shareholders withdraw the company's trust. On Monday, the racing VW Vorzugsaktie in Frankfurt up to 23 percent into the red. That is the largest price drop in six years. With 128.05 Euros they were as cheap as most recently in July 2012 Design The current share price fall of the Wolfsburg-based group lost around 19 billion Euros of market capitalization or else expected the loss of market value weights as heavy as 1.3 million VW Rabbit in the standard version with a 1.2-liter TSI engine, which is offered at VW wholesalers Gottfried Schulz for 14,990 Euros. Next the total market capitalization Commerz bank is just 12.6 billion Euros. "Unbelievable," Comment on the dealer. "The exhaust affair should properly draw the brand names affected.
http://www.handelsblatt.com/finanzen/maerkte/aktien/volkswagenund-die-abgas-affaere-vw-aktie-crasht-um-23prozent/12346742.html
Volkswagen emissions scandal could kill 200 Britons, warns MIT and Harvard By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
4:00AM GMT 29 Oct 2015
The Volkswagen emissions scandal could lead to the deaths of 200 Britons if cars are not recalled quickly, academics have warned. (Particulate pollution from all sources kills 29,000 Britons a year)
Volkswagen’s use of defeat software to evade emissions standards will cause the early deaths of more than 60 people in Britain and could kill up to 200, a study by MIT and Harvard University has found. The emissions are, according to the study, likely to cause more than 60 people to die in Britain up to 20 years prematurely. And that number will rise to 200 if Volkswagen does not actively enforce the recall.
In addition to the increase in premature deaths, the researchers estimate that Volkswagen's excess emissions will contribute directly to more than 31 cases of chronic bronchitis and 34 hospital admissions involving respiratory and cardiac conditions. They calculate that individuals will experience more than 120,000 minor restricted activity days, including work absences, and about 210,000 lower-respiratory symptom days. In total, the scandal could cost taxpayers nearly £300 million in healthcare and social costs. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11960254/Volkswage n-emissions-scandal-could-kill-200-Britons-warns-MIT-andHarvard.html
VW scandal caused nearly 1m tonnes of extra pollution, analysis shows Volkswagen’s rigging of emissions tests for 11m cars means they may be responsible for nearly 1m tonnes of air pollution every year, roughly the same as the UK’s combined emissions for all power stations, vehicles, industry and agriculture, a Guardian analysis suggests.
(http://www.vox.com/2015/9/21/9365667/volkswagen-clean-dieselrecall-passenger-cars(Bibliography: Plumer, B. (2015) Volkswagen’s appalling clean diesel scandal, explained. Available at: http://www.vox.com/2015/9/21/9365667/volkswagen-clean-diesel-recall-passengercars (Accessed: 8 February 2016). In-line Citation: (Plumer, 2015))
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/robcommentary/the-vw-emissions-scandala-case-study-in-what-not-todo/article26550100/Bibliography: BANSAL, T., KING, M. and SEIJTS, G. (2015) The Volkswagen emissions scandal: A case study in corporate misbehaviour. Available at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/robcommentary/the-vw-emissions-scandala-case-study-in-what-not-todo/article26550100/ (Accessed: 8 February 2016). In-line Citation: (BANSAL, KING, and SEIJTS, 2015))
(http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/industrynews/volkswagen/volkswagens-emissions-cheat-software-scandalan-explainer/Bibliography: Volkswagen’s emissions ‘cheat’ software scandal: An explainer (2015) Available at: http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/industrynews/volkswagen/volkswagens-emissions-cheat-software-scandal-an-explainer/ (Accessed: 8 February 2016). In-line Citation: (Volkswagen’s emissions ‘cheat’ software scandal: An explainer, 2015))
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34324772 Bibliography: Hotten, R. (2015) Volkswagen: The scandal explained. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34324772 (Accessed: 8 February 2016). In-line Citation: (Hotten, 2015))
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Vehicle_Air_Pollution_Control_A ct Bibliography: National emissions standards act (2014) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Vehicle_Air_Pollution_Control_Act (Accessed: 8 February 2016). In-line Citation: (National emissions standards act, 2014)) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal Bibliography: Volkswagen emissions scandal (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal (Accessed: 8 February 2016). In-line Citation: (Volkswagen emissions scandal, 2016))
(http://www.theguardian.com/business/nginteractive/2015/sep/23/volkswagen-emissions-scandal-explaineddiesel-cars Bibliography: Topham, G., Clarke, S., Levett, C., Scruton, P. and Fidler, M. (no date) The Volkswagen emissions scandal explained. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2015/sep/23/volkswagenemissions-scandal-explained-diesel-cars (Accessed: 8 February 2016). In-line Citation: (Topham et al., no date))
Bibliography: BANSAL, T., KING, M. and SEIJTS, G. (2015) The Volkswagen emissions scandal: A case study in corporate misbehavior. Friday edn. The Globe and Mail. Inline Citation: (BANSAL, KING, and SEIJTS, 2015) (http://www.volkswagenag.com/content/vwcorp/content/en/the_group.htm/ Bibliography: Group, V. (no date) Volkswagen group the group. Available at: http://www.volkswagenag.com/content/vwcorp/content/en/the_group.html (Accessed: 8 February 2016). In-line Citation: (Group, no date))
