A book by the New York Times’ European correspondent has cast new light on the VW diesel-gate scandal.
Faster, Higher, Farther, written by journalist Jack Ewing, suggests an extensive cover-up after regulators first became suspicious about diesel emissions engines in smaller VW cars, the NBR reports
Ewing looks in depth at the West Virginia university’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions’ 2014 research, which found big discrepancies when the vehicles were tested on road conditions.
An email in the book shows a VW Jetta tested by the team from West Virginia emitted 15 to 35 times the permitted amounts of nitrogen oxides during road tests, while a Passat tested by West Virginia researchers was five to 18 times over the limit.
The same cars were able, however, to pass tests conducted on rollers in a laboratory.
“A thorough explanation for the dramatic increase in NOx emissions cannot be given to the authorities,” the email says.
“It can be assumed that the authorities will then investigate the VW systems to determine whether Volkswagen implemented a test detection system in the engine control unit software (so-called defeat device).”
An internal company presentation highlighted in the book shows options discussed included refusing to acknowledge a problem, update engine software, or admit there was a problem and buy back diesel cars sold in the US.
Engineers from California Air Resources Board (CARB) and VW both got involved and Ewing says the company gave answers that the regulators regarded as evasive, nonsensical or dismissive.
VW eventually updated the software in 280,000 vehicles, which Ewing says “Volkswagen brazenly used the recall to enhance the ability of the software to recognise when a car was being tested”.
Everything became public in August 2015, with VW admitting it had installed the illegal defeat device and knew this all along.
However, VW remains the world’s most popular car maker, using the crisis to restructure the business, including big cost cuts.
“The broader lesson is that VW used the crisis to do things that it couldn’t do under normal circumstances and it is now stronger than it was before the scandal,” says Christian Stadler, a professor of strategy at the Warwick Business School.
This is reflected in its latest quarterly result: a net profit up 45% to €3.35 billion ($5.2 billion).
The NBR says recent reports reveal the company is banking on a new fleet of sport utility vehicles and a new generation of electric cars to turn its fortunes around in America.
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