The Volkswagen emissions scandal
Nikolas Vrahimis
On September 18, 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed one of the largest scandals in automotive history, accusing the German car giant Volkswagen (VW) Group of flagrantly violating the Clean Air Act. The scandal, often referred to as ‘ Dieselgate, ’ shocked the global automotive industry, unravelling a complex web of corporate deceit, legal violations, and ethical misconduct. VW’s deliberate actions to manipulate emissions regulations triggered an unprecedented global legal crisis, involving violations of environmental, corporate, consumer protection, and fraud laws. The purpose of this essay is to delve into the origins of the scandal, dissect the laws VW violated, and examine the profound consequences. Volkswagen’s deception began in 2006 when the company, under CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder, sought to aggressively market diesel vehicles in the US due to their lower carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, and better fuel economy compared to standard petrol engines (Flender, 2020). Pischetsrieder created a ten- year plan to triple US sales, relying on the sales of what VW marketed as ‘ Clean Diesel ’ vehicles, hoping to become the world’s number one carmaker (Parloff, 2018). The issue with diesel, however, is it emits 30% more NOx gasses (Pilkington, 2022) than the equivalent petrol car – a pollutant known to cause respiratory problems and contribute to environmental degradation. Combatting the polluting NOx gasses involves cleaning the exhaust gases using a substance called AdBlue, which reacts with the NOx producing nitrogen and water, diminishing the quantities of NOx released. The trade-off with AdBlue lies in the increased maintenance and weight of the vehicle, due to the addition of an AdBlue tank (Flender, 2020). Pischetsrieder aimed to minimize this trade-off and maximize sales, with the ambition to produce a clean and low-maintenance vehicle. Producing a clean vehicle which does not compromise on performance or fuel efficiency would prove even more difficult because of the environmental standards across the world. Different markets faced different standards, with Europe focusing on reducing the effects of global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions; a diesel engine seemed to fit these requirements as such engines emitted less CO 2 . By c ontrast, US regulations focused on clean air, with the EPA’s Clean Air Act (CAA) aiming to reduce smog and acid rain, caused primarily by NOx emissions from automobiles (Forsgren, 2019). The CAA and the California Air Resource Board (CARB) implemented rigid regulations on light-duty vehicles, including: strict limits on NOx emissions; requiring diesel engines to use Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technologies to limit NOx emissions; and certifying that the vehicles meet the standards through laboratory testing using the EPA’s Federal Test Procedure (FTP), which measures a vehicle’s emissions under simula ted driving conditions (EPA, 2019). Automakers must comply with these standards to sell vehicles in the US.
These environmental regulations exacerbated the need to find a compromise between NOx emissions and performance and maintenance requirements. Therefore, immense pressure was placed on VW and its employees to manufacture a car that fit the criteria. In 2007, Martin Winterkorn took over from
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