Increased scrutiny on diesel-powered cars’ emissions hasn’t revealed any other cheating cars beyond Volkswagen’s models, German magazine Wirtschaftswoche reported (via Reuters).
In an interview with California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols, the German outlet reported that Nichols said Volkswagen appeared to be alone in cheating so far.
“Up until now we have found no fraudulent defeat device in vehicles of other brands,” she told the magazine. “There is nothing that comes close to the magnitude of the excess in VW vehicles. “
It’s unclear where that leaves automakers such as BMW, whose diesel-powered X3 was initially targeted by the International Council for Clean Transportation as polluting 11 times beyond legal limits.
CARB and the Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that diesel-powered cars would undergo increased scrutiny, regardless of automaker, to determine if other automakers were polluting beyond legal limits.
Nichols added that Volkswagen’s recent admission that its cars emitted more carbon dioxide than disclosed would warrant increased attention, but not necessarily further testing.
At least one dude just kicked his dingo.
Asshat! I’m at work; laughing that loud is not work place appropriate.
“Aw $#!+. That’s a big negative on the Tu Quoque reserve strategy, guys: better think up something else.”
This really is Watergate for this industry, isn’t it?
So the question is:
-is vw the only cheater
Or
-is everyone else better at hiding their cheating?
The Wikipedia page for “Defeat Device” shows many cases where auto manufacturers have been in trouble with the EPA for having hardware or software that made pollution worse under some condition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defeat_device
What makes the Volkswagen TDI case unique is that Volkswagen appears to have ECU code designed specifically to identify the test cycle and only operate in a compliant way during those test conditions.
So at what point do we start a VW Death Watch?
Or a VAG-FCA-PSA match made in Hell Europe makers need to survive somehow megamerger watch.
I think it should have started already.
The only thing I can see that will keep Volkswagen afloat is intervention by the court(s), which will only be a Pyrrhic victory. The courts might limit damage awards to the millions of plaintiffs and governments, but this will leave millions of very unhappy customers. VW will lose substantial business, and be unable to sustain its current level of production and staffing, resulting in a much-damaged, much smaller, and less trusted company.
VW won’t die. Too big too fail. It would be bailed out much like GM. They are also owners of many successful brands (unlike GM) beyond their own (Porsche, Skoda, Seat, Rolls, Bentley, Audi, etc.).
That’s an interesting scenario. But it would effectively put the German government in the uncomfortable position of paying the plaintiffs’ settlements.
The Lower Saxonian Government, not the German…
It would be interesting to see how the bail-out will work out, given how much stink the German government made about the French attempt to bail-out PSA.
I’d love to see the upcoming battle with Brussels.
I got the impression that the issue with the X3 was more that it polluted more than allowed while in certain ranges that weren’t part of the test, but that it was in compliance if you ran it in the real world equivalent of the dyno emissions test.