Volkswagen effect: Are other car companies cheating on emissions?
Because it has聽admitted to using clever software聽in its diesel cars to cheat on the US Environmental Protection Agency鈥檚 air quality test, German automaker Volkswagen will have to recall half a million cars with 2-liter diesel engines dating back to 2009.
The company鈥檚 chief executive Martin Winterkorn聽, saying that the company will not sell its 2015 and 2016 diesel cars in the United States. Since then, Volkswagen鈥檚 public stock has lost 20 percent of its value. The company's reputation seems shattered, at least for now. The company also faces billions of dollars in fines, potential criminal charges for executives, and a class-action lawsuit by consumers.
This is very bad news for the automaker, whose US sales already fell 10 percent last year. But it also might be really bad news for other automakers, as the US and other countries with emissions regulations could test more brands for their compliance.
鈥淭he artificial gaming of emissions tests threatens to become the car industry鈥檚 Libor moment,鈥� Stuart Pearson, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, told the Financial Times, referring to the massive financial scam uncovered among London banks in 2012.
He said it鈥檚 likely that other companies聽.
The EPA said on Friday that some diesel cars from 2009 through 2015 鈥� the Volkswagen Golf, Jetta, Beetle, and Passat, and the Audi A3 鈥� emit聽聽for nitrogen oxide, which is restricted because it鈥檚 linked with asthma and lung illnesses.
To get around the agency鈥檚 environmental regulations, the company admitted to equipping these cars with 鈥渄efeat devices,鈥� software that measures the steering wheel position, vehicle speed and barometric pressure to determine when the car is being tested in order to temporarily reduce harmful emissions and pass the test.
Meeting the emissions standards, reports The New York Times, could聽聽and power of Volkswagen diesel engines. More than half of the cars VW sells in Europe are diesel. In the US its 23 perecent.
Whether Volkswagen鈥檚 deception will affect customer's views of the company and long-term sales is questionable. , assistant director and senior research engineer at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor聽points to General Motors and Toyota as examples. Both were recently involved in ignominious car-safety scandals and certainly faced short-term backlash from consumers. But corporate efforts to win them back has helped the companies rebound over time.
In the case of Volkswagen, 鈥淭his is a NOx emission issue,鈥� he told 海角大神. 鈥淚鈥檓 not even sure if consumers know what NOx is.鈥�
He added, 鈥淚t鈥檚 probably not a big driver in their decision [to buy the car or not].鈥�
