Volkswagen engineers cheated on U.S. emissions tests, according to a recent investigation. The falsified reports occurred, in part, because their vehicles couldn’t meet the nation’s emission standards.
The United States is known for having stricter limitations on emissions since the country has the second worst emissions in the world. When Volkswagen came up with a diesel-powered passenger car, it was primarily popular in Europe and soon made its way to America. However, because of the high emissions standards, the German company said that they “quite simply could not find a way to meet the tougher” limits posed for nitrogen oxide pollutants.
This came from chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch, who participated in a press conference in Germany that was translated into English and streamed live over the Internet.
Pötsch also confessed, “We are not talking about a one-off mistake, but rather a chain of errors that was never broken.”
Pötsch also revealed that the scandal included 450 employees with nearly 1 TB of data recovered to testify to the fact. The company has officially suspended nine managers with possible involvement in the results. He stated that they would be hiring a private auditor from here on out, adding that those engineers who cheated on the books should have striven to find a solution to the emissions issue instead of trying to cover it up.
“One thing is clear. We are in the middle of the greatest test this company has ever faced,” Mr. Pötsch stated before explaining what measures the company was taking to find the guilty parties. “You can be certain: These people will be brought to justice.”
Along with the United States investigation, Volkswagen ran their own investigation and found that the fraud was so deeply embedded in the books because their information technology infrastructure was insufficient to catch such a fraud.
“We plan to deal rigorously with this issue to ensure that nothing like this happens again. We owe that, not least, to our customers.”
The first signs of the issue were detected in September , and soon after, it was discovered that the same faulty emission data software was installed on nearly 11 million vehicles all over the world.
The company is currently facing a plethora of lawsuits and criminal investigations, including from the United Stated Justice Department. The company acknowledges the “personal failures on the part of individual employees and the flaws in some of our own processes.”
The company executives also blamed this scandal on a “mindset” in some areas of the company that tolerated cheating, a mindset that they’re taking radical action to change.
Pötsch told the gathered reporters, “When it comes to thresholds, we need the courage to be more honest. The growing industry-wide discrepancies between official emissions data and real-life levels are no longer acceptable. We need to break new ground here.”
As Volkswagen hurries to correct their error in the midst of falling reputation and profits, they’ll have to take some proactive environmental actions to repair their good name. It has already been revealed that the company plans to unveil an electric concept car . This style of vehicle is the antithesis of the crisis they’ve been dealing with as far as emissions go, and it’s one of many attempts the company is taking to salvage their reputation in the eyes of the environment.
In addition, the company will need to work very closely with the Environmental Protection Agency to repair their emissions mistakes and give back to the environment. The company has revealed their plans to become a global economic and environmental leader among automobile manufacturers by as early as 2018.
After this recent scandal, it may take them a little longer to achieve this goal, but some of their initiatives include “setting new ecological standards in the areas of vehicles, drivetrains and lightweight construction.”
They’ll need to start by working from the inside to purge their company of employees who tolerate a cheating mindset. Once they’ve taken these steps, however, Volkswagen will be on their way to putting this scandal behind them and improving their public image.
[Image via Carsten Koall/Getty Images]
