BETTER PARTSEleven million cars, not a half
Hair, September 22, 2015
Had a few days ago, the refugees, the first pages of newspapers on their own, so the VW scandal has now taken hold there to phony NOx emission levels. We summarize what is at stake.
The trick with the recognition software
The VW group has simulated in the US with a special software engine very low NOx emissions, and indeed over many years. The 2.0 TDI versions of the Audi A3, VW Jetta, Passat, Beetle and Golf a code has been installed, which detects whether the car drives one cycle to measure emissions. In this case, the motor parameters are set so that resulting low nitrogen oxide levels. If the vehicle is on the road in real traffic, on the other hand is optimized and sacrificed the environmental performance, for example, on performance. The American environmental authorities CARB ( California Air Resources Board ) and EPA ( Environmental Protection Agency ) have now informed the public and found that was in breach of the American Climate Protection Act Clean Air Act over the manipulation.
Conceded facts ( semi )
VW has admitted the facts in a press release by Martin Winterkorn, more or less: " The Executive Board of Volkswagen AG accepts the infringements very seriously I personally deeply regret that we have disappointed the trust of our customers and the public. . " About the Image loss also threaten VW also financial consequences. Firstly, vehicles that do not meet US standards, not to be sold. Therefore VW has stopped the sale of the US diesel versions. Second, VW has to fix the error. This means that callback with corresponding costs.
Billion punishments threaten
And finally threatens a fine of up to 37,500 US dollars ( 33,400 euros ) per car. With 482,000 affected cars in the US that would be a total of about 16 billion euros. That this framework will be fully exploited, however, is rather unlikely. So Toyota cost a recall in the years 2009 to 2011 despite nine million affected vehicles and some deaths only a single-digit billions, as executes Christian Stadler from the Warwick Business School.
Europe also affected?
Meanwhile, however, the affair has widened. Considerably more than the approximately 500,000 US vehicles are involved, as expressed in the latest VW press release: " Striking are vehicles with engines of type EA 189 with a total of eleven million vehicles world around. " In these there is a striking divergence between test values and real-life driving operation. The high number is likely to suggest that Europe is concerned ?? or maybe just had. Because the current European diesel vehicles with Euro 6 classification met the legal standards, so VW.
Stock market crash and profit provision
The market price of VW has fallen due to the bad news from 160 to currently 107 euros ?? which is over 30 percent. Because of the risk of a costly recall and a profit slump VW also announced a provision of 6.5 billion euros. Even on personal consequences will be discussed. Only that Heads will roll? The heads of the Volkswagen Group of America, Michael Horn? Or even of the CEOs themselves, like the Berlin Tagesspiegel reported, citing supervisory circuits? Winterkorn will not resign on his own initiative, as he announced in a video message on Tuesday afternoon, anyway.
Increased NOx emissions in everyday life
The VW scandal shows that even modern diesel engines are not always as clean as it promises the exhaust emission limits. This affects not only VW, but all manufacturers. This has been known since 2014 at the latest. At that time, a study of the Environment Institute ICCT ( International Council on Clean Transportation ) that in many vehicles, the nitrogen oxide emissions in real traffic are seven times higher than on the bench. Therefore, the European Union has decided that the NOx emissions do not need to be measured on the dynamometer, but also in real driving conditions from January 2016 ?? the slogan is Real Driving Emissions (RDE ) . ( sl )