[arunphilip]

While the US Government and EPA still contend that the emission fraud perpetrated by the VAG group is not due to only rogue engineers (as alleged by VAG management), one engineer has pled guilty in the case.

As part of his plea agreement, this engineer will assist the government in their investigation, which will include the prosecution of others involved in the conspiracy.

While this might reek of scapegoating, it is also reason for optimism - with an insider helping the investigators, it should help them unravel this quicker, particularly the questions around who in management were aware of and signed off on these decisions.

In a Detroit District Court today, 62-year-old engineer James Robert Liang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government, commit wire fraud, and violate the Clean Air Act. Liang ... worked for Volkswagen’s diesel development department in Wolfsburg, Germany from 1983 to 2008.

...in 2006 Liang and others began building the EA 189 diesel engine that has been the center of the controversy. When the engineers realized they couldn’t meet consumer expectations and US air quality standards at the same time, they began looking into using illegal software (often known in the auto industry as a “defeat device”). By 2008, Liang worked to “calibrate and refine the defeat device.” Later that year, he moved to the US to help with “certification, testing, and warranty issues” for the company’s new diesels.

US prosecutors assert that when Liang and his fellow engineers met with the EPA regulators in 2007 in Michigan to describe the diesel technology that VW’s cars used, they never mentioned any software that enabled the cars’ emissions control systems during lab testing while reducing their efficacy during real-world driving.

The bit about increased warranty claims which I've emphasized in the below quote is telling - it indicates that running the engines in the less-polluting test mode is causing some failure over time. This in turn will bring into question both the short-term and long-term effectiveness of the fixes that VAG are implementing now, given that a more holistically designed engine and defeat device themselves couldn't avoid the issue.

An interesting wrinkle in the prosecutors’ claims is that early VW diesel owners began experiencing problems with their emissions control systems as their vehicles grew older, causing increased warranty claims for the company. Allegedly, some of Liang’s peers thought this was because the cars weren’t switching over to the more-polluting “road mode” and were getting stuck in “testing mode,” in which the emissions control system was fully effective. “Liang worked with his co-conspirators to enhance the defeat device to allow the vehicle to more easily recognize when the vehicle was no longer in testing mode,” the plea agreement states.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/09...sions-scandal/

[volkman10]

Ironically VW has the cleanest Cleanest Euro 6 Diesels In Europe . Fiat (and Suzuki ) has the worst.



The European Transport & Environment Commission has made a report that compares real world driving emissions to the Euro 6 standard for NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions for diesel engines.

Volkswagen seems to sell the cleanest Euro 6 diesels available in Europe. Even if they have the lowest NOx emissions average out of 230 diesel car models analyzed, the engines from Volkswagen still had twice as many nitrogen oxide emissions in real-world driving than the standard would allow.

Meanwhile, Fiat and Suzuki’s diesel engines had an average NOx emission level that was 15 times higher than the legal limit when compared on the road.

Renault-Nissan was the second-worst offender, while Opel-Vauxhall was third. Back in the lowest on the road emissions, Seat and Skoda ranked just after Volkswagen, but ahead of Audi, BMW-MINI, and Mazda

French roads have the largest number of “dirty” diesels, which 5.5 million estimated units, followed closely by Germany with 5.3 million. The United Kingdom comes in third with 4.3 million, while Italy is fourth with 3.1 million.

Spain and Belgium fared better, as both have less than two million “dirty” diesels on their roads, according to estimates made by Transport & Environment.

Link

[carwatcher]

The efforts of VW have won them an IgNobel Cemistry Prize too.

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

While the US Government and EPA still contend that the emission fraud perpetrated by the VAG group is not due to only rogue engineers (as alleged by VAG management), one engineer has pled guilty in the case.
As part of his plea agreement, this engineer will assist the government in their investigation, which will include the prosecution of others involved in the conspiracy.
While this might reek of scapegoating, it is also reason for optimism - with an insider helping the investigators, it should help them unravel this quicker, particularly the questions around who in management were aware of and signed off on these decisions.
The bit about increased warranty claims which I've emphasized in the below quote is telling - it indicates that running the engines in the less-polluting test mode is causing some failure over time. This in turn will bring into question both the short-term and long-term effectiveness of the fixes that VAG are implementing now, given that a more holistically designed engine and defeat device themselves couldn't avoid the issue.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/09...sions-scandal/

Deeply intriguing! What extra-ordinary deviousness the criminal mind - not withstanding their brilliant engineering rascality! - will resort to in order to win. And to see them still squirming & wriggling to find a way out despite having been caught wearing the emperor's new clothes! One doesn't know whether to laugh at the spectacle of the mighty having fallen so low - or to feel astonished at the temerity & arrogance of the Teutonic mind-set - "ours is the only right way to build a car!" as I recall reading elsewhere in the press blizzard following the bursting of the scam bubble.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by carwatcher

The efforts of VW have won them an IgNobel Cemistry Prize too.

Nobody from the company turned up to accept the award.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by carwatcher

The efforts of VW have won them an IgNobel Cemistry Prize too.

Here is the citation:
"CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Winner Volkswagen [GERMANY], for solving the problem of excessive automobile pollution emissions by automatically, electromechanically producing fewer emissions whenever the cars are being tested."

Link: http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/

[deetjohn]

So, who made money with Dieselgate? And the obvious answer is - the lawyers!

Volkswagen Group has agreed to pay $175 million to U.S. lawyers representing 475,000 owners affected by the Dieselgate scandal.

That’s a lot of money, but it’s just a fraction of the $332.5 million lawyers were seeking back in August to cover fees and costs concerning the settlement between Volkswagen and owners trying to sell back their emissions-cheating diesels.

Source

[volkman10]

VW's 'dieselgate' Status,



Source- VW news

[volkman10]

VW's $14.7 billion court settlement over diesel vehicles approved by U.S. judge!

A federal judge today approved Volkswagen AG's record-setting $14.7 billion settlement with regulators and owners of 475,000 polluting diesel vehicles, and the German automaker said it would begin buying back the vehicles in mid-November.

Source

[tj123]

Looks like the settlement is not over for VW now its an Audi in question !

U.S. regulator found another cheat device in Audi car: report

A U.S. regulator found software in some Audi vehicles that lowered their carbon dioxide emissions if it detected they were being used under test conditions, Bild am Sonntag reported.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) discovered the software in an automatic transmission Audi last summer, the German weekly newspaper said, without citing any sources.
CARB and Audi declined to comment on Sunday's Bild am Sonntag report.
The paper said the device, which was not the same as the one which triggered last year's diesel emissions scandal at Audi parent Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), was also used in diesel and gasoline-powered cars in Europe.
VW's admission that it had installed software that deactivated pollution controls on more than 11 million diesel vehicles sold worldwide, triggered the deepest business crisis in the German carmaker's history.
Audi, the main contributor to VW group profit, has also admitted its 3.0 liter V6 diesel engine was fitted with emissions-control software.
Bild am Sonntag said the software discovered by CARB, which was installed in vehicles with certain automatic transmissions, detected whether a car's steering wheel was turned.
If it was not, indicating laboratory testing conditions, the software turned on a gear-shifting program which produced less carbon dioxide than in normal road driving. If the wheel was turned in any direction by more than 15 degrees, the program was switched off, the paper said.
Audi stopped using the software in May 2016, just before CARB discovered the manipulation in an older model, the paper said, adding that the carmaker had suspended several engineers in connection with the matter.

[volkman10]

Renault referred to prosecutors over diesel emissions.

Renault is so far the only automaker after Volkswagen Group to be referred for possible criminal investigation in France.

Renault faces a criminal investigation over its diesel emissions after French officials passed a file to prosecutors detailing suspicions that the automaker's engine technologies broke the law.

It is now up to the courts to determine what further action to take over the suspected breaches,

Source

[shinuak]

I have an appointment with Vinayak Skoda tomorrow for the software update to be done on my car to meet the emission norms. I have been assured by the Service guy that this update will not result in any power / torque drop at any rpms but will only reduce emission levels. I took it with a pinch of salt and the enthusiast in me is very skeptical. But I guess I will go ahead and get this done as the environmentalist in me got better of the enthusiast. Even if nominal, I think we should do whatever possible from our end. Anyway will post my observation post the update.

[newtonMeter]

Originally Posted by shinuak

I have an appointment with Vinayak Skoda tomorrow for the software update to be done on my car to meet the emission norms. I have been assured by the Service guy that this update will not result in any power / torque drop at any rpms but will only reduce emission levels. I took it with a pinch of salt and the enthusiast in me is very skeptical. But I guess I will go ahead and get this done as the environmentalist in me got better of the enthusiast. Even if nominal, I think we should do whatever possible from our end. Anyway will post my observation post the update.

whats the report? did you feel any change in the car? what were the steps taken?

[volkman10]

Volkswagen updates carbon dioxide emissions ratings.

In the wake of Volkswagen's emissions scandal, the firm has updated the CO2 ratings for many of its cars including the Polo, Golf, Passat and Touareg.

The biggest alteration noted is the Golf 1.6 TDI with manual gearbox. It’s been updated from 99g/km to 103g/km. A Polo 1.0 MPI 60’s CO2 emissions are now rated at 108g/km where they were previously 106g/km.

Source

[volkman10]

Volkswagen to withdraw diesels from US market, Mercedes-Benz could follow.

German newspaper Handelblatt reports that the automotive giant has made the decision to withdraw its diesel offerings, contrary to previous reports that Volkswagen executives indicated TDI models may come back to the States for the one or two years leading up to the new, stricter diesel laws.

Meanwhile, luxury marque Mercedes-Benz is also considering dropping its diesel-powered models in the US citing dwindling demand.

Link