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VW-Powerpoint

It only gets better (unless you lot ain its stock): A Volkswagen "technology executive" back in 2006 created a PowerPoint presentation detailing how to crook the diesel fuel-engine emissions tests in the U.s.a. that are tougher than those in Europe where diesels account for half of vehicle registrations. Volkswagen executives reportedly turned down opportunities to add more than constructive, total-fourth dimension pollution controls because of the cost.

News of the the PowerPoint backgrounder was reported by Süddeutsche Zeitung and so The New York Times. The reports suggest VW was concerned that meeting US emissions standards would habiliment out the emissions gear VW used, and that more sophisticated emissions controls would brand VW diesel cars even costlier than competing Hondas and Toyotas. It also says VW over fourth dimension added more intelligence to the software to adamant when a car was being tested, at which bespeak VW's emissions controls were enabled.

What the PowerPoint said

News reports say the concise presentation was prepared and delivered in 2006, making Dieselgate a decade old now. Information technology noted that US pollution laws were tougher than in Europe and information technology afflicted diesel-engine cars most heavily, particularly the limit of 0.04 grams of nitrogen oxides per kilometer. The presentation allegedly said the repetitive nature of the tests could exist recognized past the car, making it possible to disable the pollution controls when the car wasn't being tested. Over time, VW recognized more than telltale signs, such as that the steering wasn't constantly being moved (which it would when driven), and upgraded the onboard software to reflect that as 1 more than sign of an emissions test.

If there's one good development, it'due south that the "engineering science executive" who made the presentation knew to to keep the PowerPoint brusk. The PowerPoint presentation was described equally existence "simply a few pages." It's not clear if that piece of meeting etiquette will mitigate whatsoever of the likely damages. It should in any proceeding where jurors with business backgrounds take been subjected to long PowerPoints with pocket-size fonts and prune art that flies in, spins, and so settles into the background, making the type even harder to read.

The name of the executive who made the presentation is patently known but hasn't been published because of European privacy laws.

2015_jetta_tdi_4220 2015_jetta_tdi_4219

More money set aside

VW must make repairs, or buy back, most 500,000 diesel engine vehicles sold in the US beginning with the 2009 model year. It too includes VW's subsidiary companies Audi and Porsche.

Volkswagen has now gear up aside $eighteen billion to pay for repairs, buybacks, and goodwill payments. VW'south market cap, or the total value of the company (stock price times number of shares of stock in existence), is just under $lxx billion. And then the set-aside currently amounts to a quarter of VW's total value and the stock market apace — oft in anticipation of mixed news — already has that figured into the stock cost.

It's reported VW volition make $5,000 goodwill payments on tiptop of the necessary repairs. That's a decent chunk of change: a three-twelvemonth Golf hatchback with a diesel engine is worth about $15,000 used, so the payout effectively increases that car's value past a third. Information technology may exist that buying a VW diesel fuel turns out to be a proficient investment. It'southward unclear if an possessor can take VW'due south cash payment and turn down to make the gratis repairs, which may reduce the auto's mileage, although on the highway even the reduced-mpg VW should still become in the forties. It may depend on whether each owner's auto passes the pollution levels ready while the car is continuing still at a motor vehicle garage or at a favored repair shop.

How VW got ratted out: curious academics

The discrepancy between emissions recorded when testing at inspection stations that nearly cars undergo every 1-two years and existent world emissions was initially observed by researchers at West Virginia University's Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions. They tested a 2022 VW Jetta Diesel and a 2022 VW Passat Diesel, both with 2.0-liter, iv-cylinder turbo-diesel engines, in a highway setting, urban settings in Los Angeles and San Diego, and rural areas with uphill and downhill roads. Confronting a federal limit of 0.04 grams/km, the cleanest the cars ran was about 0.35 grams/km (Passat) on a highway route; that was nine times the limit. The worst was the rural and San Diego urban routes (Jetta) at about ane.v grams/km, 37-38 times the limit. Further testing was washed by the California Air Resources Board and by the second half of 2022, the true cat was out of the bag.