Volkswagen's 'existence-threatening' crisis
The World is up in arms over the Volkswagen emissions scandal, forcing VW to withdraw brand new diesel vehicles from sale in Australia with immediate effect. Volkswagen AG announced that they will be temporarily suspending sales of diesel vehicles to the Australian public that may be fitted with EA 189 TDI Diesel Engine and software designed to mask emission levels. VW made this announcement after they and Audi Australia met with the Federal Government authorities, the ACCC and the Department of Infrastructure, responsible for vehicle approvals, on Friday the 2nd October, to discuss the automakers' plans to deal with the issue. VW confirming that 11 million vehicles manufactured from 2009 to 2015, distributed throughout world had been fitted with a "cheat devices", however the German automaker nor their subsidiary Audi provided details of the models.
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| EA 189 TDI Diesel Engine |
However the models withdrawn from sale included the 2009-2015, VW Beetle 2.0L TDI, VW Golf 2.0L TDI, VW Jetta 2.0L TDI, Audi A3 2.0L TDI, and VW Passat 2.0L TDI sedan and wagon, Audi A4 sedan and wagon, Audi A5 coupe, Audi Q5 2.0 TDI SUV, VW Tiguan SUV, the Skoda Yeti SUV and Skoda Superb sedan and wagon fitted with the controversial 2.0-litre EA189 diesel engine. Sales of these vehicles were also suspended in the US, Canada and Switzerland. France and Italy have each launched inquests into who manipulated the company’s diesel emissions data and who knew about it. Currently there are inquiries in every country world wide, launched by the relevant bodies as to whether or not consumers were misled by Volkswagen. If found guilty Volkswagen will face legal action and may be fined $108,000 AU per car on Australian roads which roughly approximates 70,000 vehicles, should be found to have been approved based on false claims.
Volkswagen, Europe's biggest car manufacturer is under huge pressure to control the biggest public relations nightmare and the biggest business crisis they ever experienced in their 78-year history. It wiped more than a third of its share price, and forced their long-time CEO to resign and it rocked both the auto industry and Germany as a country. The head of their U.S. division was called upon to testify before lawmakers and Germany's KBA watchdog has set a deadline to Oct. 7 for them to come up with a refit plan. Meanwhile VW started provided websites for customers to self verify whether or not their vehicles are affected.
Volkswagen’s own internal inquest into the deceptive engine software that cost the company a third of their share price, is honing in on former R&D Audi engineer Ulrich Hackenberg and former R&D Porsche engineer Wolfgang Hatz. Former being the operative world since both of them were among a number of engineers suspended during the investigation.
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| Ulrich Hackenberg (left) and Wolfgang Hatz (right). |
According to Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobi-Club (ADAC), a German motoring group. They say that Volkswagen is not the only company whose vehicles pollute and fail tests and claim that diesel vehicles from other popular car manufacturers also emit dangerous levels of pollution. Renault's Espace Energy dCi 160, Nissan's X-Trail 1.6 cDi and Jeep's Renegade 2.0 are earmarked as the worst polluters and other manufactures vehicles like Volvo, Citroën, Fiat, BMW, Ford, Jaguar and Mazda are reported to emit 10 times more NOx when compared to current European Union (EU) emission standards.
Some of these manufacturers spoke out and raised criticism of the New European Driving Cycle's (NEDC) emissions standards and testing policy, implying that the issue, doesn't fall solely on the car manufacturers but also on testing procedures.
