A third of VW ‘defeat devices’ remain unfixed

Judge finds Bosch involved in emissions scandal

Mary Creagh MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, has written to John Hayes MP, Minister of State at the Department for Transport, to express the Committee’s concerns around the lack of progress of applying fixes to cars equipped with ‘defeat devices’, with a third of cars remaining unfixed.

Meanwhile, On 30 October 2017 Judge Charles Breyer of the US District Court for the Northern District of California upheld car dealers’ arguments that Bosch’s involvement with the VW defeat device emissions scandal violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the same law used to bring charges for mafia-related crime and other organized racketeering.

“Internal Volkswagen emails also support that Bosch was involved in the scheme,” the judge wrote in his order, citing a November 2006 email in which Dieter Mannigel, a member of Volkswagen’s software design team in the U.S. diesel engines division, emailed Hanno Jelden, head of Volkswagen’s powertrain electronics division, about the “US07” project. That project involved the design of the first iteration of “clean diesels” for sale in the United States.

Mannigel’s email is revealing and reads:

“Have you spoken with Bosch about the issue of US07…?

This issue is slowly becoming critical….

I came away from our meeting with Mr. Krebs [who joined Volkswagen from Audi in 2005] with the following:

– When we use the ‘acoustic function,’ it should have an appearance that won’t get us in trouble….

– He is very skeptical about its implementation on the U.S. market: for one thing due to the very critical liability situation….

In my opinion, the requirement of ‘nondiscoverability’ has neither been met for today’s function nor the planned expansion.

The FP sheet for the expansion has been submitted to Bosch.

How do we proceed?”

Diesel is finished

The combinations of the emissions scandal and VW’s response to it has led environmental groups to proclaim that “diesel is finished”.

Greenpeace clean air campaigner Mel Evans said: “VW’s manipulation of emissions testing is corporate misconduct at its worst. VW’s use of ‘defeat devices’ in its cars was designed to mislead the public on emissions. That has contributed to the air pollution crisis we’re facing, which is damaging people’s health.

“VW needs to try harder. Even its newest diesel cars are emitting a lot more pollution on the road than they’re meant to. The only way to redeem itself now is to accept diesel is finished, and become an industry leader in electric vehicle technology.”