Home > News > The Scope of the Diesel Scandal…

“Dieselgate” is one of the most egregious examples of corporate malfeasance in recent history. The profit motive and the goal to be the most prolific auto manufacturer drove the Volkswagen Group (now made up of 12 major brands including VW, Audi, Lamborghini, and Porsche) to install emission control defeat mechanisms to allow its cars to pass smog tests. (Cars were programmed to “behave” during smog tests. The rest of the time, they were spewing pollution.) This embarrassing and immoral activity resulted in massive fines and leadership changes within the corporation. It also likely contributed to premature deaths and illnesses around the globe and environmental degradation.

There have also been reports of collusion among German automakers to orchestrate this cheating. One such article is Spiegel Online’s “Collusion Between Germany’s Biggest Carmakers“.

“And then there are the millions of owners of diesel cars. In an almost bizarre way, they too are victims of the German auto cartel. For the first time, there is proof that it was agreements among these five automakers that ultimately ensured that emissions from diesel vehicles were not cleaned as effectively as would have been technically possible. This all began with the cartel of the five automakers.” – Spiegel Online

News like this make it really difficult to like these brands again (we were Audi fans) and raises questions about their commitment to sustainability. It’s great to see that they are coming out with electric cars and have made investments in charging infrastructure. (The $10B VW settlement is being leveraged to expand infrastructure, among other things.) It’s likely that this is mainly in response to growing demand for electric cars and competion from Tesla. I suppose I’ll believe their committment once they shift completely away from gas and diesel powertrains.

A great documentary explaining ‘dieselgate’ is “Hard NOx” (Season 1 of Netflix’s Dirty Money) It describes in detail the fraud, the extent the group took to hide it, and the environmental and human impact of their crime.

– Noel

5SEP2018 Update: I reflected on this matter and about the EV models announced by a number of the manufacturers above (e.g., the Mercedes EQC, Audi E-Tron, and Porsche Taycan),the long line of EVs from US and Asian companies, and the escalating demand across many markets, and have to say that the overall outlook is very positive. Consumer demand and competitive pressure will inevitably result in the obsolescence of the internal combustion engine. (I got that off my shoulder.)

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Noel Morin