In a new report, German automaker Volkswagen was said to be overseeing the emissions test results from its headquarters in Wolfsburg. Automotive News reports that the chain of command leads back to its German base, where executives would ensure that emissions would achieve the “targeted” results.
According to the report, the vehicles were evaluated at a site in Westlake Village, California. Emission testers were on-hand to test the cars according to criteria issued from Germany. However, before the results were officially handed over to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it would be translated from English to German, and sent back to its headquarters first.
Following those results, for vehicles that failed the emissions test, a team of engineers from either Volkswagen or Audi would then be flown in to the US to spend a week “tweaking” those cars. The tweaks would then ensure that the cars were able to give off the “required” results. The brand had no engineers stationed in the US.
The brand had another, larger facility at Oxnard, California dedicated to the purpose of emissions testing for VW cars around the world as well as those for the US. The test equipment at the facilities was provided by AVL List GmBH, a company located in Graz, Austria. Spokesperson for AVL List, Michael Ksela however denied that the company had any involvement in the on-site tests.
Ksela confirmed that although emissions levels did show a 10% to 20% difference from on-road results, tests never revealed emissions to be 35 or 40 times greater. This leads to the belief that the software was installed beforehand, before going through the emissions test at the said facilities in California.
Volkswagen is facing a potential fine of up to US$18 billion (RM79 billion) along with a massive recall of up to 482,000 VW and Audi vehicles. The brand is also facing a criminal investigation by the US Justice department as well. Three high-ranking executives will be facing the sack, while former CEO Winterkorn has resigned leaving Matthias Mueller, the company’s new CEO, to clean up the mess.
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So the difference was between laboratory test and actual road test?
More questions than answer
The big question is, since they found the culprit, will they make them the new scapegoat and bring back Winterkorn in some other position since he is ‘exonerated’?
But then, who ordered the engineers to go to the test area and do their ‘work’?
I would stay away from VW. They are a pack of lies. If they can lie once, ooops sorry, a few times now if you take DSG into account, they can lie about anything.
VGM in Malaysia should just close down. Even 2015 owners are having DSG breakdowns and VW insist DSG is a thing of the past.
Now vw and proton are in same category in Malaysia.
They already admitted the incident and committed to be fix it soon. I believe not every car also facing gearbox issue, even toyota vehicle is not 100% relaible.
its quite a shock coming from a such highly regarded brand in the automobile industry. RIP VW.
Same thoughts here. I mean how could they do this? This is VW not some third world country’s obscure outfit. Then again big corporations like HSBC, Standard Chartered, big pharmas and many other big names have broken the law to make a few billions more. Still… it’s crazy.
then, VW will be underpowered…
does not matter here in bolehland where petrol & diesel are still only euro2M…..the dirtiest emitting vw diesel are still wayy cleaner than our petrol & diesel stillusing euro2 M spec fuels
Get a Hilux and you are free from troubles
Got takata airbags inside?
Takata Airbags have save more life than it kills.
it need improvement as new single flaw has been identified.
Takata Airbags, not owned by Toyota.
In fact, has been used by many brands including BMW, Ferrari, Volkswagen, Ford, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Diamler Vans and Trucks.
http://www.safercar.gov/rs/takata/takatalist.html
So what? If one kills, others can kill too.
Yes Toyota’s KD engines will not having problem. But the problem may come very soon. There are so many reports on the injectors & pump failure using higher EURO fuel. The additives replace the sulphur as the lubricant doesn’t goes well with the engine causes wear & tear. As the result, injector are the main victim. + the biodiesel. That is even worse.
Proton never cheat on testing, unlike VW. Stupid VeeDub.
Milotin no need to test.. Test or no test still milotin… De whole worlds knows it!
somehow i have a feeling more people will be found guilty in this “dieselgate” incident. as for VW, i seriously don’t know how they are gonna recover from this. the only thing they can hope for is probably that someone else in car industry screwed up even bigger time than they are now.
they will just fking de-tuned the engine
Do you guys know who supply these exhaust muffler systems?
Faurecia Emission Technologies. The same company who JV with DRB Hicom to supply for the new Proton Persona cars.
Of course VW has never failed official emission tests. Problem is, with this ‘tweak’, will you get the same official quoted performance, on rig and on road?