VW’s smoke signals tell tale of lies and deceit

FASTER, HIGHER, FARTHER Jack Ewing Loot.co.za (R355) Bantam

THIS book, which races along like Lewis Hamilton, tells the inside story of the Volkswagen scandal.

The carmaker had steadily built up a reputation for automotive excellence over many years, business writer Jack Ewing explains. Little did outsiders know, though, that throughout the ’90s and 2000s, the company was run almost as a personal fiefdom by Ferdinand Piech, a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who designed the original Beetle.

Even when Piech was pushed upstairs to become company chairman, his replacement as chief executive was a protégé of his, Martin Winterkorn. Between them, these two men inculcated a regime of fear and loathing at Volkswagen. The firm was at the forefront of the introduction of diesel engines to mass-market cars.

Motor industry lobbyists had persuaded most political leaders in Europe that diesel was environmentally friendly, which was true to an extent – it produces far less carbon dioxide – but what they neglected to mention is that it spews out far more nitrogen oxides, as well as very fine, carcinogenic soot particles.

As Ewing explains, there are various widgets on the market to reduce the amount of nitrogen oxides emitted by diesels. But they are all expensive and take up space in the car. So Volkswagen installed something called a “defeat device” into the software that runs all this stuff. This could tell when a car was being tested on laboratory rollers and reduce the amount of nitrogen oxides being emitted. It was a cheat, basically.

A research team at West Virginia University tested on the roads a Volkswagen Jetta and Passat, which issued more nitrogen oxides than a modern longhaul diesel truck. So enormous was the output that the researchers assumed their equipment was faulty. Later on, US regulators found that some VW vehicles were issuing 40 times the legal limit for nitrogen oxides.

As a result of one court case, Volkswagen had to pay $15 billion. But Ewing thinks it will survive. Nonetheless, the goodwill and the reputation are gone for ever. Piech and Winterkorn blame junior engineers and claim to have known nothing about it. Indeed, no senior executive has been charged with any crime. – Daily Mail