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German newspapers report former Volkswagen Group boss mislead investigators over Dieselgate
Investigative newspapers in Germany have cited internal memos and emails suggesting former Volkswagen Group CEO Dr Martin Winterkorn knew about the company’s diesel emissions cheat.
The Bild am Sonntag newspaper, which ran with the story late last week, suggested Dr Winterkorn was told about the #Dieselgate problems far earlier than September 2015, as he informed investigators.
The documents also suggest senior Volkswagen Group officials developed a strategy to delay and confuse US regulators after they were given clear evidence of the diesel emissions cheat in early 2014.
The newspaper alleged the company’s senior managers mislead both the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Review Board into thinking they could pull the emissions back beneath the NOx emissions limit, when they knew that was simply not possible.
The documents suggest one of Dr Winterkorn’s sources wrote to him in May 2014 to let him know US regulators were about to drop the hammer on Volkswagen for using a defeat device, which emitted compliant amounts of NOx on a test bed but switched off in real-world conditions.
More than a year later, Dr Winterkorn publicly admitted Volkswagen had used the cheating device on 11 million diesel-powered four-cylinder cars worldwide.
Investigators also found a similar cheating code on the V6 diesel engines from the Volkswagen Group and cars from Audi, Skoda, Seat, Porsche and Volkswagen have all been embroiled in the mess.
While Volkswagen’s internal investigation is due to reveal its final report in April, it is not believed to be focusing on Dr Winterkorn, who resigned on September 23 last year.
In other Dieselgate news, rival German newspaper Welt am Sonntag has reported Volkswagen is being pressured to build electric cars in the US to mitigate its penalties over the diesel emissions cheat.
The newspaper insisted the EPA asked Volkswagen to switch its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, from making Passats and SUVs to electric cars, as well as to help fund a nationwide network of supercharging power points for electric cars.
The newspaper wasn’t clear whether the US government was asking Volkswagen to build an all-new electric car there, or to simply switch production of one or more of its current electric models to the US.
The Volkswagen Group has a large range of plug-in hybrid and electric cars, with the powertrains fitted to everything from the up! to the Passat.
German newspapers report former Volkswagen Group boss mislead investigators over Dieselgate
Investigative newspapers in Germany have cited internal memos and emails suggesting former Volkswagen Group CEO Dr Martin Winterkorn knew about the company’s diesel emissions cheat.
The Bild am Sonntag newspaper, which ran with the story late last week, suggested Dr Winterkorn was told about the #Dieselgate problems far earlier than September 2015, as he informed investigators.
The documents also suggest senior Volkswagen Group officials developed a strategy to delay and confuse US regulators after they were given clear evidence of the diesel emissions cheat in early 2014.
The newspaper alleged the company’s senior managers mislead both the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Review Board into thinking they could pull the emissions back beneath the NOx emissions limit, when they knew that was simply not possible.
The documents suggest one of Dr Winterkorn’s sources wrote to him in May 2014 to let him know US regulators were about to drop the hammer on Volkswagen for using a defeat device, which emitted compliant amounts of NOx on a test bed but switched off in real-world conditions.
More than a year later, Dr Winterkorn publicly admitted Volkswagen had used the cheating device on 11 million diesel-powered four-cylinder cars worldwide.
Investigators also found a similar cheating code on the V6 diesel engines from the Volkswagen Group and cars from Audi, Skoda, Seat, Porsche and Volkswagen have all been embroiled in the mess.
While Volkswagen’s internal investigation is due to reveal its final report in April, it is not believed to be focusing on Dr Winterkorn, who resigned on September 23 last year.
In other Dieselgate news, rival German newspaper Welt am Sonntag has reported Volkswagen is being pressured to build electric cars in the US to mitigate its penalties over the diesel emissions cheat.
The newspaper insisted the EPA asked Volkswagen to switch its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, from making Passats and SUVs to electric cars, as well as to help fund a nationwide network of supercharging power points for electric cars.
The newspaper wasn’t clear whether the US government was asking Volkswagen to build an all-new electric car there, or to simply switch production of one or more of its current electric models to the US.
The Volkswagen Group has a large range of plug-in hybrid and electric cars, with the powertrains fitted to everything from the up! to the Passat.
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