Report: VW execs knew about fuel economy, emissions cheating a year ago
Report: VW execs knew about fuel economy, emissions cheating a year ago by Sebastian Anthony , Ars Technica
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Fuel mileage issues, not "subdued demand" behind sales halt of VW Polo BlueMotion
Volkswagen's outgoing CEO, Martin Winterkorn, knew about the company's emissions and fuel economy cheating a full year before they became public knowledge, the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reports.
The newspaper reports that VW stopped selling the Polo TDI BlueMotion back in spring 2015 because it had discovered that its actual fuel economy was 18 percent below its official rating. At the time, VW claimed that it pulled the Polo because of "subdued demand."
Bild , citing "sources close to Winterkorn," says that Winterkorn knew about this fuel economy discrepancy back in spring 2015. Furthermore, Bild says that VW's top executives knew about fuel economy and emissions issues with its other cars a year ago. Bild did not cite its source for the "year ago" assertion, however. With this scandal likely to cost VW tens of billions of euros in fines and lost revenue, Bild hopefully vetted its sources enough, lest it get hit by a massive defamation suit.
The VW scandal, which began in September, has tumesced into a cock-up of gnarly proportions. First, it looked like just a few hundred thousand diesel vehicles in the US had been fitted with a "defeat device" for cheating on emissions testing . Then the problem spread to Europe and the rest of the world, with the company admitting that around 11 million vehicles had false emissions ratings. More recently, it has emerged that VW was cheating on carbon dioxide emissions and fuel economy , too.
Winterkorn has since stepped down as CEO of Volkswagen Group, replaced by Matthias Müller who was previously CEO of the VW subsidiary Porsche. Ironically, at the beginning of November it emerged that some Porsches were also involved in the emissions imbroglio—Porsches that were produced while M ül ller was CEO.
Back in October, VW claimed that the defeat devices had been the work of rogue software engineers, and that the company's execs hadn't been aware of what they were up to. If Bild 's report is accurate, that would seemingly throw a rather large spanner in the company's narrative.
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This is crazy. Are we going to think VW any less guilty if it turns out that senior management was unaware of the cheating? Will we reward senior management for not knowing what was going on in the company for which they were responsible?
That's one hell of a defense! " Not guilty by reason of incompetence, your Honor... "
If true, this is going to turn VW on it's head, if it isn't already there.
I see nothing, I know nothing.....Great defense
The stock has been performing excellent over the last month. It looks like the worst is over and there is still plenty of upward potential.
I haven't looked for it, but I would like to see some numbers in order to see how far off these cars were in their advertised emission and mileage to compare them to other vehicles on the highway.
That still doesn't excuse any wrongdoing by them, but I heard you could get 40 to 50 mpg driving down the highway.
I know it is wrong and someone should suffer, not just in stock price and sales for cheating, but I bet some of these big SUV's getting 1/3 to 1/4 the mpg have a lot worse emissions and don't get near the miles out of those emissions.
Something to think about.
This is VW stock graph over the last year:
This is GM stock graph over the last year:
Six,
I remember when the GM stock became worthless and lost tens of thousands in my 401K.
Suppose I should be grateful they continue to employ people, just like VW and return to the current shareholders. I'm just really sick and tired of propping up the car industry that slime's its way to profitability at the taxpayer expense.
@lynne-adams :
Not to mention the MILLIONs of financial incentive given to VW from the taxpayers in Tennessee to lure and keep VW here!
I'm sorry you were involved in that, but who could know unless you were on the inside. GM has been losing market share since 1980 to other companies. I seem to remember GM trading for 75 cents. Then all the old investors paved the way for the company to remain in business and pardon me if I'm wrong the investors before and during the bankruptcy lost practically everything never to recoup any significant value.
Here is CitiGroup from 1/1/06 to 12/1/15
Guess you can figure when the end of 2008 and early 2009 was on this graph.
Sorry you had to have them basically rob you with GM stock worst than pennies on the dollar.
You're right about losing most of every dollar invested...by the time I paid brokerage fees to transact the worthless stock I netted around 12 cents on the dollar. Lessons certainly learned as I constantly monitor my portfolio, no longer depending on the sage advise of the investment firm
Many or most of us have lost in lessons learned. It would be so much better to take this costly course much earlier in life in order to have the time and knowledge to be able to look upon it as an expense well worth the cost in the end.
I don't know, but it would appear those with this experience, knowledge or guidance could or should have realized there are only two paths the stock and/or country is going to take after such an upheaval.
In GM's case the country came back, GM ditched the investors in order to stay in business and did it all legally, if you can believe that. It would have made no difference anyway, the investors would have lost most or all their money such as AIG investors stock was trading at approximately $1200 before the recession. It is trading at approximately $64.00 a share now. As I recall, AIG was another stock trading around $1.00 during that time.
The investors lost the same GM stockholders lost, but there is another way to look at it, which, by the way, is not much comfort to the pre-recession investors who had stock worth $1200 a share, but is only worth $64.00 now.
Here is the positive side of that scenario. The people who bought the stock near the low end experienced have multiplied their investment as much as 60 times.
Remember when Facebook went public? Everyone jumped on Facebook around $25.00 to $30.00 a share and it quickly went down to less than $20.00 as I remember. Maybe we should flip a coin. I don't think so. Facebook is now trading three and a half years later at approximately $107.00 a share. It may be be $1.00 per share tomorrow.
We're not clairvoyant. Wouldn't that be nice or would it?
Priceline is worth 3 times as much as it was 5 years ago.
Well, have we learned anything? I don't think so. It is said flipping a coin is just about as good a way to make a decision if you do it every time. I guess we could say this is one time when diversity is the best course of action, because I suspect I could mirror this whole comment and everything would be exactly opposite as it is here.
A very interesting book to read is "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Burton G. Malkiel
I don't have much time to do a lot of reading, so I listen while I'm working as I drive 50k to 60k miles a year in my job. That allows me quite a bit of time to listen. Sometimes I listen to the same book 2 or 3 times to get what I missed.
Let me make a suggestion if you want to try this method. You can sign up through your library to download books onto your phone and probably computer as well in the mp3 format. Ask your library about it if you are interested. There are many books in that format, more in CD format and of course many more in ebook format at no cost to you.
Have a great day Lynne!
The customer was not harmed -- no more than everyone, on our burning planet.
But these cars cars often got "green bonus" advantages when they were sold, paid by the government. So I have to wonder if VW won't have to reimburse...
Not to mention the MILLIONs of financial incentive given to VW from the taxpayers in Tennessee to lure and keep VW here!
D'ya think there was a "money back guarantee"??
Of course not
The state/citizens should be eternally grateful to the lying, cheating job creators...honesty be damned!
Oh!
CORPORATIONS ARE GOOD!
You will repeat this five hundred times to obtain absolution.
CORPORATIONS ARE GOOD
CORPORATIONS ARE GOOD
CORPORATIONS ARE GOOD
Grabbing a cup of coffee and will utter it another 497 times to husband...expect angry call soon! LOL!
Blessed are the weak in mind...
Greed is bad as long as it isn't my greed.
Greed is bad as long as I don't have to give up all my property and belongings for the good of all.
'From each according to his/her ability and to each according to his/her need" is good as long as it doesn't pertain to me and I don't have to empty my bank account, give up all my houses, property and wealth I've worked so hard for all my life.
Followed by,
Greed is Good
Greed is Good
Greed is Good.
Software engineer quote : "I vas only following orders " .
That would be funny... if some employees weren't actually using it...