Liar, liar - wheels on fire!

[Pine]

Volkswagen US boss says 'we screwed up'



The boss of Volkswagen's US business has admitted the firm was dishonest in using software to rig emissions tests.
Michael Horn said the firm was dishonest with US regulators, adding: "We have totally screwed up."
Last Friday, the regulators said VW diesel cars had much higher emissions than tests had suggested.
French Finance Minister Michel Sapin has called for an EU inquiry, but a UK car industry spokesman said there was "no evidence" of cheating.
Mike Hawes, who is chief executive of the UK's Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said the EU operated a "fundamentally different system" from the US, with tests performed in strict conditions and witnessed by a government-appointed independent approval agency.
"There is no evidence that manufacturers cheat the cycle," he said. "Vehicles are removed from the production line randomly and must be standard production models, certified by the relevant authority - the UK body being the Vehicle Certification Agency, which is responsible to the Department for Transport."
However, he also described current testing methods as "outdated" and said the car industry wanted an updated emissions test, "more representative of on-road conditions".

Fines looming

France's Mr Sapin said inquiries in Europe had to be conducted "at a European level".
"We are a European market with European rules," he told Europe 1 radio. "It is these that have to be respected. It is these that have been violated in the United States."
Elsewhere, the South Korean government said it would test up to 5,000 Jetta and Golf cars, along with Audi A3s made in 2014 and 2015.
Its investigation will be expanded to all German diesel cars if issues are found.
VW shares plunged nearly 20% on Monday after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that software in several diesel cars could deceive regulators.
Volkswagen was ordered to recall half a million cars in the US on Friday.
In addition to paying for the recall, VW faces fines that could add up to billions of dollars. There may also be criminal charges for VW executives.
The White House in Washington also reportedly said it was "quite concerned" about VW's conduct.

[Tony Z]

whoops....

what I dont understand is that it says "software in diesel cars could deceive regulators"
surely when testing emissions, you test what comes out of the exhaust pipe, not what the ECU program says it should be doing???

[Pine]

Volkswagen shares plunge on emissions scandal

Wiping out about $17.6 billion in market value.
Reuters | 21 September 2015 14:32

Volkswagen plunged as much as 23% to 125.40 euros in Frankfurt on Monday after the German carmaker admitted it had rigged emissions tests of diesel-powered vehicles in the United States, and US authorities said they would widen their probe to other automakers.

German officials, alarmed at the potential damage the scandal could inflict on its car industry, urged Volkswagen to fully clear up the matter and said it would investigate whether emissions data had also been falsified in Europe.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Friday the world’s biggest carmaker by sales used software for diesel VW and Audi branded cars that deceived regulators measuring toxic emissions and could face penalties of up to $18 billion.

The scandal reverberated on Monday with the White House saying it was “quite concerned” about the reports of VW’s conduct. And the US Department of Justice started a criminal probe of the effort to game the emissions tests, Bloomberg News reported.

The EPA and California officials said on Monday they would test diesel vehicles from other manufacturers for similar violations. In addition to Volkswagen, automakers including General Motors Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles sell diesel cars and SUVs in the United States.

“You will understand that we are worried that the justifiably excellent reputation of the German car industry and in particular that of Volkswagen suffers,” German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabrielsaid.

VW shares fell 18.6% to close at 132.20 euros, wiping some 14 billion euros ($15.6 billion) off its market cap. Shares in Porsche SE, a holding company which controls 51% of VW’s common stock, also plunged around 20%, while the European autos index was down 4.1%.

Volkswagen Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn has promised to support testing by German authorities of the company’s diesel cars, Germany’s Transport Ministry said on Monday.

Winterkorn said on Sunday he was “deeply sorry” for the breach of US rules and ordered an investigation. People including a VW supervisory board member said Winterkorn may have to resign.

“This disaster is beyond all expectations,” said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, head of the Center of Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Analysts said it was unclear whether other automakers had also broken rules or what the ultimate cost could be for VW, which reported 2014 net income of 10.84 billion euros ($12.15 billion) according to Thomson Reuters data.

German rivals Daimler and BMW said the accusations made by US authorities against VW did not apply to them.

Industry experts predicted the scandal would hit VW hard, just as it was hoping to move on from a damaging leadership battle, with a supervisory board meeting on Friday due to discuss a new company structure and management line-up.

Winterkorn, who saw off a challenge to his authority with the ousting of long-time chairmanFerdinand Piech, ran the VW brand between 2007 and 2015, including the six-year period when some of its models were found violating US clean air rules.

“DEFEAT DEVICE”

Evidence of increased toxic emissions at VW first emerged in 2014, prompting the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to start investigating VW, a letter by CARB to VW dated Sept. 18 showed.

Volkswagen initially denied it was trying to game the inspections, attributing the higher emissions readings to “various technical issues and unexpected in-use conditions,” the EPA said in its formal notice of violations on Friday.

The stonewalling continued until the agency threatened to withhold certification for the carmaker’s 2016 models, the EPA said.

“Only then did VW admit it had designed and installed a defeat device” that purposely lowered emissions while it was being inspected, the agency said. During regular driving, emissions would return to a much higher level, boosting the car’s performance.

Any decision on emissions control mechanisms would have been taken at the group’s Wolfsburg headquarters and not by regional divisions, a source close to Volkswagen said.

Germany’s Robert Bosch supplies diesel emissions control devices to VW, an industry source said. Asked whether Bosch had supplied the electronic module central to the EPA test findings, a company spokesman said: “We supply components for exhaust after-treatment to several manufacturers. The integration is the responsibility of the manufacturer.”

The way carmakers test vehicles has been coming under growing scrutiny from regulators worldwide amid complaints from environmental groups that they use loopholes in the rules to exaggerate fuel-saving and emissions results.

In 2013, an Indian government-named panel accused GM of flouting testing regulations by fitting engines with low emissions in vehicles sent for inspection. And in 2014, Hyundai Motor Co and affiliate Kia Motors Corp paid $350 million in penalties to the US for overstating fuel economy ratings.

The European Commission said it was in contact with VW and US regulators, but that it was too early to say whether any specific immediate surveillance measures were needed in Europe or whether VW vehicles in Europe were also affected.

VW overtook Japan’s Toyota in the first half of this year to become the world’s biggest carmaker by sales, but is facing a sharp slowdown in its most profitable market, China.

The US scandal also adds to the challenge it faces in reviving its North American business, which has long lagged its performance elsewhere.

“HUGE LOSS OF TRUST”

Ingo Speich, a fund manager at Union Investment that owns about 0.4% of VW shares, said he was braced for the crisis to spread for the carmaker that makes vehicles from budget Seats and Skodas to luxury Bentleys and Lamborghinis.

“The market is anticipating more than just the US issue. We have to admit that just looking at the facts there is a huge loss of trust in management,” he said.

Exane BNP analysts said VW’s problems could have wider implications for diesel vehicles, which have long struggled to gain a foothold in the US market.

Bernd Osterloh, the head of VW’s works council and a supervisory board member, called for those responsible to be held accountable. He said Winterkorn would resign should investigations prove he was personally responsible.

The carmaker’s second-largest shareholder, the German state of Lower Saxony, said, however, that decisions would have to wait until the crisis had been “fully and thoroughly” examined.

As well as regulatory fines, analysts said VW could be hit by a drop in sales and lawsuits from shareholders and environmental groups.

The company has already told its US dealers to stop selling the diesel models criticised by US regulators, while Keller Rohrback LLP has filed a nationwide class action complaint against VW’s US division, saying it deliberately deceived consumers and regulators in its emissions testing.

VW’s Canadian unit has also stopped selling some diesel models, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

Ratings agency Fitch said the deepening crisis could put pressure on the company’s credit ratings.

[fig]

Emissions testing has nothing to do with actual emissions. Car makers carefully prepare cars for the tests, with the aim to achieve the best score possible within the bounds of the test process, which bears no resemblance to actual driving conditions.

I am sure we will shortly hear that all or many of the other car manufactiurers have been doing the same thing.

The amount of energy that goes into making a car is a LOT more than the energy consumed by a car over its entire working life. The greenest cars on the road are well maintained old cars, because they have long ago amortised their environmental cost of manufacture.

[Pine]

Watch how it unfolds..



(Wonder if Japanese emission tests will beat the rest? )

[brianj]

My 2003 Mercedes has a fan which blows air directly into the exhaust at startup to improve gas ratios... Purely for emissions control reasons

[retrovan]

Every car maker has always over tuned their cars for test days, but to write new software to only have test passing results while the test plug is plugged in, well, that something else.
The test houses in the USA also carry blame in this here issue, as they where so naive to think that they can test a car via the test plug fitted by the manufacturer.
OMO
Herman

[eben]

They used steering angle, vehicle speed, engine run time and barometric pressure to activate different maps in the ECU.
Under conditions identified by the above inputs as an emissions test, they increased the efficiency of the NOx trap so it could pass the test.

[Pine]

And the jokes have started...

[Donovan D]

[Pine]

..

[retrovan]

VW diesel cars are Magician cars.......



They disappear in a puff of smoke........



Herman

[Retrobug]

LOL!

[fig]

[Pine]

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