Volkswagen under investigation over illegal software that masks pollution

[bluey]

EA288 now implicated...

From what I have seen, VW global has only officially mentioned EA189. Michael Horn mentioned three generations of vehicle in his testimony to US congress 1.5 wks ago - explained to be 2 generations of EA189 plus EA288. I understood the EA288 contained the suspect code but probably doesn't need it to pass testing, at least outside USA.

[Rawcpoppa]

Came across an interesting article. Took excerpts and bolded things that stood out to me. The full article can be found in the link.

How Could Volkswagen’s Top Engineers Not Have Known?

How Could Volkswagen’s Top Engineers Not Have Known? - Bloomberg Business

From February through April 2013, they tested three diesel cars: a Volkswagen Jetta, a Volkswagen Passat, and a BMW SUV. Besch took charge of the initial assessment, using the dynos, and he was impressed. The cars emitted almost nothing, prompting some crowing from Besch about European engineering. When Besch’s fellow investigator, Arvind Thiruvengadam, joined him to take the cars on the road, however, the results were different. The road tests captured a variety of conditions: high elevations up Mt. Baldy; stop-and-go urban errand-running in San Diego; freeway driving around Los Angeles. The two Volkswagens’ emissions exceeded standards by 5 to 35 times. The BMW’s didn’t.

First, they assumed the results were wrong, so the team recalibrated the instruments and kept on driving. Eventually they realized that, yes, they were seeing something noteworthy, if not exactly shocking. What comes out of a tailpipe on the road is always going to differ somewhat from regulatory targets met in tightly controlled environments. Speed, elevation, and temperature all affect the result. To isolate the cause, Besch pored over a two-part paper, published by Volkswagen’s top engineers in 2008, that described purportedly groundbreaking emissions control achieved by the new TDI 2.0 liter engine. And he pursued a theory related to the exhaust filtering system. He still couldn’t explain the full extent of the emissions.

“We thought the vehicles would be clean. We had no cause for suspicion.”

Volkswagen, at least, took note. Someone from VW got in touch with the team to get more details. Carder tried to get Volkswagen interested in a follow-up study with more cars, but it never happened. Early this year, engineers from VW’s Oxnard test facility called to discuss the routes WVU used. (Besch declined to provide names of the engineers.) And that was pretty much it. Which was normal—carmakers regularly learn of emissions problems from researchers and quietly make fixes. “We didn’t hear anything more from them, so we fully assumed that they had made some recalls,” says Carder. “We didn’t even talk to our friends at [California] ARB to follow up on it. That’s really how confident we were that they’d have fixed this, that it was going to be a nonissue.”

In 2008, VW brought its “clean diesel” to the U.S. with a publicity worthy of Barnum. It landed a Guinness World Record by providing a Jetta to a husband-and-wife team who drove the car through the contiguous 48 states and averaged 58.8 miles to the gallon—unprecedented for any car on that route. At the Los Angeles Auto Show, VW entered its 2009 Jetta TDI Clean Diesel in a Green Car of the Year contest whose jurors included Jay Leno and the executive director of the Sierra Club. The Jetta won, beating out hybrids. At a conference the same year on diesel emissions, in Dearborn, Mich., a VW executive boasted that the new engines had all the environmental benefits of a hybrid car, without any drag on performance. “You don’t have to sacrifice power to be environmentally conscious,” declared one of the slides.

While the idea of power without pollution took off among U.S. consumers, engineers familiar with the technology knew that such claims required magical thinking. “That is the story of Santa Claus,” says Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Without the urea system, “it’s not possible to meet the standard.”

Who exactly is responsible for devising and allowing the VW cheat remains a mystery. One of the clearest explanations so far has come from VW board member Stephan Weil, head of Germany’s Lower Saxony state, which is VW’s second-biggest shareholder. He explained in an Oct. 13 speech to his state parliament how the new diesel engines couldn’t meet the U.S. requirements, and rather than addressing the issue, VW covered up with the software cheat. “In subsequent years there followed a use of this software in other models and other countries,” said Weil. Perhaps the engineers told themselves that the cheat was a stopgap, and they’d address it later. If so, they didn’t.

It’s not credible that top managers were unaware corners had been cut, says Dudenhöffer, who worked at Porsche and other carmakers before entering academia. In contrast to GM, where finance people have run the show for years, and Ford Motor, whose former CEO is a turnaround specialist from another industry, VW is a company where the engineers are in charge.

All U.S. regulators had to do was look across the pond to Europe to see evidence that “clean diesel” did not live up to its name...

The data from Europe had an unexpected result. Europeans weren’t about to give up their cheap-running diesels for hybrids. But maybe they could make some adjustments based on the presumably cleaner versions pioneered for the U.S. market. Looking to rehabilitate diesel as a more climate-friendly option, ICCT decided to gather evidence in the U.S., where diesel cars met even stricter standards than in Europe. Surely the American models really were running cleaner.

“We thought the vehicles would be clean,” says John German, U.S. co-director of ICCT. “We had no cause for suspicion.” That’s when the organization made its proposal for road tests in West Virginia.

With the West Virginia study as a launching pad, in May 2014 the California watchdog and the EPA opened an investigation into Volkswagen. Talks between the parties went on for months. The company said it had identified the reasons for the higher emissions and proposed a fix. That resulted in a recall of nearly 500,000 U.S. vehicles in December 2014 to implement a software patch.

At VW’s Oxnard facility, the level of paranoia was rising in July and August, according to a person who worked there. In one instance, a manager accused a low-level employee of being an EPA plant.

...And in a little-noticed announcement on Oct. 13, Volkswagen said that from now on, “Diesel vehicles will only be equipped with exhaust emissions systems that use the best environmental technology.” Which one? BlueTec, the system whose rejection started it all.

[bluey]

At least the Bloomberg article reports 5-35x emissions, instead of the headline grabbing 35 or 40x. ICCT research said average 7x for all diesels. Don't forget the WVU study has problems with badly designed exhaust system. Still hoping someone can test emissions on a vehicle with an extra 3m tailpipe added and see what it does.

One day a journo might actually report on fuel differences between USA (cetane 40) and europe (euro3 1999 standard cetane 51) and the effect of that on emissions.

[Transporter]

One day a journo might actually report on fuel differences between USA (cetane 40) and europe (euro3 1999 standard cetane 51) and the effect of that on emissions.

Ooh come on, who would be interested in that? It just doesn't get any attention.
Just don't allow any facts to get in the way of a good story.

[Rawcpoppa]

At least the Bloomberg article reports 5-35x emissions, instead of the headline grabbing 35 or 40x. ICCT research said average 7x for all diesels. Don't forget the WVU study has problems with badly designed exhaust system. Still hoping someone can test emissions on a vehicle with an extra 3m tailpipe added and see what it does.

One day a journo might actually report on fuel differences between USA (cetane 40) and europe (euro3 1999 standard cetane 51) and the effect of that on emissions.

Would you also say that the regulatory agencies messed up the testing too and thus VW admitted wrong doing prematurely?

[hoi polloi]

One day a journo might actually report on fuel differences between USA (cetane 40) and europe (euro3 1999 standard cetane 51) and the effect of that on emissions.

Journos generally aren't too technical unless you're talking of specialist publications... For the mainstream press, I doubt it'd happen...

- Anthony

[ian]

I got an email today from. WV.

Hi Ian,

Over the past few weeks we have been working hard to identify the full extent of the worldwide diesel emissions issue.

As a result, unfortunately we have found that your Volkswagen Tiguan is affected.

You have trusted in Volkswagen and we have let you down.

Despite the disappointment you will no doubt feel at this news, we would like to put your mind at rest about a few things.

We can assure you that your car remains safe from a technical standpoint and is still driveable.

The Type EA 189 engine built into your Tiguan with the VIN WVGZZZ5NZFW011133 is affected by software that causes discrepancies in the values for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) during laboratory testing.

This means Volkswagen Australia has initiated a recall on your vehicle.

Rest assured Volkswagen will cover the cost of all necessary measures to rectify the issue. Our parent company, Volkswagen AG, is working to design a technical solution for each vehicle. We will contact you as soon as we have this. For now you don’t need to take any action.

Volkswagen Australia realise that the emission issue has rightly shaken the faith of our customers and for that we are deeply sorry. Furthermore, significant changes are now being made within Volkswagen to safeguard against anything like this ever happening in the future. Now more than ever actions speak louder than words and we will ensure this issue is resolved for every customer.

We encourage you to keep up to date with the latest information by visiting Volkswagen Australia Diesel Emissions News & Information. Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact our customer care team on 1800 504 047.

Having people’s trust has been our greatest privilege. Today we begin the task of earning it back.

Yours faithfully,
MSB Signature
Michael Bartsch
Managing Director

[Guest001]

I think we all may have got that I did anyway. Mass mailing I would say. Just grovelling anyway.

[dero]

An email which documented the stuff we all already know but detailed and committed to nothing.

I got the same email.

[arcadelt]

I didn't get one, but not surprised as I am not the original purchaser, so they'll have to track me down some way.

[Guest001]

Fill in the form in the front of the service book for changed owner and send it in

[hoi polloi]

I didn't get one, but not surprised as I am not the original purchaser, so they'll have to track me down some way.

On the VW Australia website where you check your VIN there is the option to leave your contact details there too.

Saying that I'm the original owner of my vehicle and have received nothing as yet...

- Anthony

[arcadelt]

Fill in the form in the front of the service book for changed owner and send it in

On the VW Australia website where you check your VIN there is the option to leave your contact details there too.

Not really all that interested in them finding me for this recall.

[Cossor]

An email which documented the stuff we all already know but detailed and committed to nothing.

I got the same email.

I got same email yesterday.
followed shortly by another email, advising the 1800 504 047 phone number is incorrect
Should be 1800 504 076.
Does VWAustralia have a staff problem? Or perhaps they have outsourced to India?

[Greg Roles]

They could only benefit from outsourcing their PR to pretty much anywhere else.