VW's defeat device

The software switched on when the automobiles were being tested for compliance with EPA standards, turning off during normal driving to allow maximum engine performance.

The algorithm used information about how the car was being steered, how long the engine ran and atmospheric pressure to "precisely track" the conditions that corresponded to a federal emissions test, according to the EPA.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-22/vw-admits-11-million-cars-have-pollution-test-cheating-device/6796740

 

Volkswagen's chief executive Martin Winterkorn has resigned, taking responsibility for the German carmaker's rigging of US emissions tests.

"Volkswagen needs a fresh start — also in terms of personnel," Mr Winterkorn, who has been at the helm for eight years, said in a statement.

"I am clearing the way for this fresh start with my resignation."

US authorities are planning criminal investigations after discovering that Volkswagen programmed computers in its cars to detect when they were being tested and alter the running of their diesel engines to conceal the true level of emissions.

"I am shocked by the events of the past few days," the 68-year-old former chief said.

"Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-24/vw-ceo-quits-after-carmaker-rocked-by-emission-scandal/6800372

Volkswagen used devices to cheat air pollution tests in diesel luxury vehicles including Porsche and Audi cars, US and California environmental regulators say, widening their investigation into the carmaker's emissions scandal.

The US Environmental Protection Agency said it was now looking at 3.0-litre V6 diesel engines from 2014 through to 2016 used mostly in larger, more expensive models like the Porsche Cayenne sport utility vehicle in addition to the smaller diesel engines whose test-deceiving software were initially targeted by the agency.

The move pulls luxury brands Porsche and Audi deeper into the scandal that has already engulfed the corporate parent Volkswagen AG and its mass-market VW brand.

On the road, emissions of the smog-causing pollutant nitrogen oxide on the affected high-end vehicles could be nine times higher than allowed, the EPA said.

"The latest revelations raise the question, where does VW's road of deceit end?," said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton in a statement, adding that the disclosure "prompts questions regarding the prevalence of the emissions cheating and how it went undetected for so long".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-03/vw-emissions-scadals-include-porches-audis/6907390

The Cartel

Collusion Between Germany's Biggest Carmakers

The diesel scandal is not a failure on the part of individual companies, but rather the result of collusion among German automakers that lasted for years. Audi, BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen and Porsche coordinated their activities in more than a thousand meetings. The exposure of a cartel.

Read more:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-cartel-collusion-between-germany-s-biggest-carmakers-a-1159471.html

 

 

by George Monbiot

Which living person has done most to destroy the natural world and the future wellbeing of humanity? Donald Trump will soon be the correct answer, when the full force of his havoc has been felt. But for now I would place another name in the frame: Angela Merkel.

What? Have I lost my mind? Angela Merkel, the“climate chancellor”? The person who, as German environment minister, brokered the first UN climate agreement, through sheer force of will? The chancellor who persuaded the G7 leaders to promise to phase out fossil fuels by the end of this century? The architect of Germany’s Energiewende – its famous energy transition? Yes, the very same.

Unlike Trump, she has no malicious intent. She did not set out to destroy the agreements she helped to create. But the Earth’s systems do not respond to mission statements or speeches or targets. They respond to hard fact. What counts, and should be judged, as she seeks a fourth term as German chancellor in the elections on Sunday, is what is done, not what is said. On this metric, her performance has been a planetary disaster.

Merkel has a fatal weakness: a weakness for the lobbying power of German industry. Whenever a crucial issue needs to be resolved, she weighs her ethics against political advantage, and chooses the advantage. This, in large part, is why Europe now chokes in a fug of diesel fumes.

The EU decision to replace petrol engines with diesel, though driven by German car manufacturers, predates her premiership. It was a classic European fudge, a means of averting systemic change while creating an impression of action, based on the claim (which now turns out to be false) that diesel engines produce less carbon dioxide than petrol. But once she became chancellor, Merkel used every conceivable tactic, fair and foul, to preserve this deadly cop-out.

The worst instance was in 2013, when, after five years of negotiations, other European governments had finally agreed a new fuel economy standard for cars: they would produce an average of no more than 95g of CO2 per km by 2020. Merkel moved in to close the whole thing down.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/19/world-leading-eco-...

 

Mind you George is coming from one hell of a family... see:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/8985

Read from top

And there was one word that he took special pains to avoid: monkey. Instead, he said he could provide some advice on the issue "that had recently been added" to the list of problems facing the industry. "I am also the animal welfare minister, after all," he told the crowd. 

Very funny.

The scandal surrounding dubious emissions tests on macaques commissioned by Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler can no longer be played down with tedious jokes and vague preaching. In recent days, we have witnessed a number of top German carmakers lose the last modicum of what little credibility they still possessed.

The list of scandals is long: visits to whorehouses submitted as company expenses, manipulation of diesel engines in millions of cars, cartel-style collusion between alleged competitors. Scandal after scandal has been exposed and condemned, with few lessons learned. Instead, improvements were promised, and the industry constantly conveyed that, "We've gotten the message." The company he runs will now "practice greater transparency and honesty," VW CEO Mathias Müller said a few months back. But things have neither gotten any more transparent nor particularly honest. 

Next week, the presidium of the VW supervisory board is to meet to address the scandal and decide on steps to be taken in response. But members of the oversight body are getting tired of looking like fools to the outside world.

A source on the supervisory board of one of the German car companies says they are "pissed off." There is also talk of "hide-and-seek games" and "moral light-footedness." One board member rang the alarm, saying: "The automobile industry is well on its way toward destroying its reputation altogether." This time, it seems, there may actually be true consequences as a result of the scandal. 

Monkey Business

German politicians are using the affair to ratchet up pressure on automakers. They are threatening further recalls of suspicious diesel models and they are also demanding additional concessions. So far, German carmakers had only wanted to pay a portion of the capital for a planned special environmental fund for municipalities aimed at offsetting the harm caused by their motors. But this week, automaker CEOs caved in. After a crisis meeting with acting Transport Minister Schmidt on Tuesday, they indicated they were prepared to shoulder a total contribution of 250 million euros. The monkey tests are going to be expensive.

The scandal was exposed by an American lawyer who has never been involved in a case of this magnitude before. Michael Melkersen runs a small law firm in New Market, Virginia, a small town with only 2,000 residents. The most conspicuous things that stand out on his resume are his hobbies: poker and extreme sports. But during the diesel scandal, in which Melkersen represented VW customers seeking damages, he dug deeper than most of his colleagues.

He wanted to know from VW if the company had tested the effects the diesel emissions would have on humans. But Melkersen says he wasn't provided with a satisfactory answer. So he began spending nights sifting through files from the VW trial. At one point, he stumbled across a series of dubious emails. In them, executives at the company expressed concern that stricter health regulations could impede the success of its diesel models.

 

Read more:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/a-monkey-on-their-back-germa...

 

Read from top...

"The behavior ... is to be deemed unethical." This is what you call a real smack. And it didn't come from just anyone, it came from Germany's highest civil court in Karlsruhe. In addition, in the case of Volkswagen the court saw a "strategic company decision through fraudulent deception of the authorities."

Thanks to the judges, we now have an answer to the question the company never really wanted to answer: Yes, they cheated and deceived. They went against "good morals" and the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) certified the carmaker's "deliberate unethical damage" to its customers. Anyone doing this violates one of the most important principles of every business, namely that of good faith.

As an example of just how far from reality Volkswagen was, at the beginning of May when the court first heard the complaint of VW customer Herbert Gilbert, company lawyers thought that the whole thing could be completely dismissed. Their argument was that the plaintiff suffered no damage because he was able to drive the car without restrictions. They simply ignored that thing about the fraudulent emissions-cheating software.

 

The long wait for German customers

Volkswagen's reaction is now sheepish. All of a sudden, the manufacturer wants to compensate the remaining VW diesel customers suing the company (currently around 60,000) with a one-off payment. Did this change of heart really require the lengthy legal process that ended at the highest German court? 

 

Read more:

https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-a-big-defeat-for-volkswagen/a-53562396

 

Read from top.

Volkswagen hunts for informer who leaked secret talks

Nearly 50 hours of secretly recorded conversations appear to show Volkswagen engaging in legally dubious behavior in a dispute with a supplier. Now the carmaker is investigating who released them to the media.

German automaker Volkswagen (VW) is searching among its own employees for an informer who recorded and shared conversations from a sensitive project in 2017 and 2018, VW told news agency dpa on Monday.

Online magazine Business Insider (BI) on Saturday published excerpts from the recordings, which concerned VW's response to an intense dispute with Bosnian supplier group Prevent. 

Read more: Could 400,000 car industry jobs in Germany be lost?

VW said it was shocked to learn that internal and confidential meetings were documented and that such information would be "released to the public without authorization."

"The case will of course be investigated," VW said.

The reason for the spying was not initially clear.

Secret working group

BI claimed to have nearly 50 hours of secretly recorded conversations.

A spokesman for Prevent, which supplies seat covers and gearbox parts, said the company had no knowledge of the recordings.

Transcripts of the recordings reveal the existence of a VW working group called "Project 1," whose mission was to terminate a contentious working relationship with the supplier. 

Responsible for the team was then-Group Head of Purchasing Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz and Volkswagen Brand Procurement Board Member Ralf Brandstätter. The latter has since been promoted to Chairman of the Board of Management VW Passenger Cars, the automaker's core brand.

In a statement, VW said the group was tasked with "averting further damage from the company, its customers, employees and suppliers. All possible solutions were openly discussed, but many were also rejected. It wasn't a decision-making body."

 

 

Read more:

https://www.dw.com/en/volkswagen-hunts-for-informer-who-leaked-secret-talks/a-54326158

 

Read from top.

 

Europe's biggest carmaker is intensifying cost-cutting measures that no longer rule out plant closures or layoffs in Germany. This has sparked criticism and resistance from politicians and labor unions.

 

Volkswagen's announcement on Monday (September 2) that it is considering closing factories in Germany is unprecedented in the German automaker's 87-year history. Such plant closures were considered off the table for the Wolfsburg-based company.

To make matters even worse for the 680,000 VW employees worldwide, the management also feels forced to end its job security program which has been in place since 1994 and prevents job cuts until 2029.

Experts are already talking about a significant paradigm shift at Germany's largest industrial employer, which due to its shareholder structure has always been an enterprise controlled by the state and the Porsche family. The regional state of Lower Saxony still holds one-fifth of the company's shares and a permanent seat on the supervisory board, meaning securing jobs and factories has always been seen as matters of state interest.

VW in dire straits as savings plan falls short

That could change now that the management believes the company is in a precarious position. Last year, Volkswagen launched a cost-cutting program aimed at saving €10 billion ($11.06 billion) by 2026. However, the mass-market carmaker would need to cut an additional €4 billion, according to a report by German business daily Handelsblatt.

 

In a letter to employees on Monday, VW brand chief Thomas Schäfer described the situation as "extremely tense" and beyond the scope of "simple cost-cutting measures." VW Group CEO Oliver Blume added that the European automotive market is in a "highly challenging and serious situation," and that Germany has fallen behind in terms of competitiveness.

As a result, the 10 car brands within the VW Group must be comprehensively restructured, and "plant closures are no longer excluded," Blume said, adding that layoffs through early retirement and severance packages are also no longer sufficient. Therefore, VW feels "compelled to terminate the employment protection agreement that has been in place since 1994."

'Punch to the gut'

VW has not yet provided specific numbers regarding how many of the approximately 120,000 jobs in Germany might be eliminated. It hasn't also identified which locations might be closed. However, according to statements by the powerful VW works council, the management considers at least one vehicle plant and one component factory in Germany dispensable.

This could potentially include the plant in Emden, in northern Germany, where Volkswagen and the Meyer shipyard are the most important employers in the region known as East Frisia.

"The prosperity of East Frisia depends heavily on these companies. Every unionized industrial job that is lost is a punch to the gut for the entire region," the mayor of Emden, Tim Kruithoff, told DW.

The Emden mayor has the backing of labor union leaders like Thorsten Gröger, who described the VW plant closures "irresponsible plan." The head of the regional metalworkers union IG Metall told the news agency Reuters that the plan is "not only short-sighted but also highly dangerous," and would risk "destroying the heart of Volkswagen." Gröger also vowed to "fight with all our might" to preserve all sites and jobs.

The VW works council, meanwhile, is particularly enraged by VW's reluctance to clarify who might be affected and how. "This puts all German sites in the crosshairs — regardless of whether they are VW locations or subsidiaries, in western or eastern Germany," said Daniela Cavallo, head of the general works council. She announced "fierce resistance."

The beginning of the transformation of the German auto industry

Many experts, however, believe that plant closures at VW in Germany are inevitable. Helena Wisbert, director of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Duisburg, Germany, thinks there's "no way around it." She told the German news magazine Spiegel on Tuesday that up until now, low capacity utilization in the plants could be offset by savings from suppliers. "That is clearly no longer enough," she added.

Moritz Schularick, president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, sees the announced cost-cutting measures as the beginning of a transformation in the German auto industry. He urges the German government not to intervene in struggling carmakers. "We should not stand in the way of structural change. Emerging industries are desperately looking for workers," he told the German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche.

VW's flawed ownership structure

CAR founder and director Ferdinand Dudenhöffer sees an "age-old VW problem" because the carmaker is "more like a state enterprise than a market-driven company." The problem will persist, he told DW, as long as VW's company structure remains "flawed." Along with its 20% stake and a seat on the VW board, the state of Lower Saxony was also granted a blocking minority on key decisions.

Lower Saxon State Premier Stephan Weil has already criticized VW's management, saying "the question of plant closures will not arise due to the successful use of alternatives."

Emden Mayor Tim Kruithoff, meanwhile, is confident that things will not turn out to become so dire for his town. "I am firmly convinced that the Emden plant will not be affected by a closure," he told DW, noting that VW has invested "more than one billion euros" in the factory to make it ready for "the future of electromobility."

This article was originally written in German

 

https://www.dw.com/en/vws-warning-on-plant-closures-in-germany-causes-outcry/a-70123969

 

The former boss of Volkswagen has appeared in court charged with fraud, market manipulation and perjury, nine years after the carmaker was found to have rigged emissions tests.

Martin Winterkorn was chief executive of the German company in 2015 when it was engulfed in a scandal that sent shockwaves through the entire industry.

It emerged the company had been deliberately manipulating official emissions checks, building cars that could pass laboratory tests while producing illegal levels of pollution in daily use.

 

Tuesday marked the start of the Mr Winterkorn's trial. He denies the charges.

"Our client did not defraud or harm anyone, he did not deliberately leave the capital market in the dark so that investors would be harmed, and he told the investigating committee the truth," his lawyers said.

The so-called "dieselgate" affair erupted in September 2015, when the US Environmental Protection Agency accused Volkswagen of installing illegal software on diesel cars.

It developed into one of the biggest corporate scandals Germany had ever seen, and sparked off a political drive towards electric vehicles which has had a profound effect on the industry around the world.

The former chief executive stands accused of deliberately duping Volkswagen’s customers and shareholders, as well as German politicians. If found guilty, the 77-year-old could face up to 10 years in prison.

The affair had its origins in a drive by the carmaker to increase sales in North America, particularly of diesel cars - which it marketed as "clean diesels".

The reality, however, was that those cars were not clean. The company had been struggling to get its engines to meet stringent US emissions standards while maintaining high performance and reliability.

'Defeat devices'

The solution its engineers came up with was to develop so-called "defeat devices". These were software that recognised when a car was being tested in the laboratory, and turned on emissions controls so that it could pass the tests.

When the car was out on the road, it would turn them off again in order to boost performance.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/trial-former-vw-boss-begins-120844821.html

 

READ FROM TOP

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

 

SEE ALSO: https://sputnikglobe.com/20240903/volkswagen-eyes-plant-closures-in-germany-as-countrys-economy-sabotaged-by-us-1119992129.html

Volkswagen Eyes Plant Closures in Germany as Country’s Economy Sabotaged by US