EPA Violation Of Volkswagen's Defeat Devices

Diesel however, has a potential to be just as clean as gasoline is, but the trade off is the added efficiency; Volkswagen Passenger cars cheated and lied about the former to pad the latter, effectively killing the fuel’s future. VW AG was installing a Robert Bosch made defeat device, despite Bosch not condoning the way it was used. The software within had an advanced algorithm that would figure out when the TDI engine was being tested (is the car on a dyno i.e. not moving etc.). During testing times, the engine would optimize for clean emissions, at all other times 2 Litre TDI Volkswagen Passenger Cars were maximizing mileage to the detriment of the environment.

Volkswagen is one of the largest automakers in the world and it has a global reputation as a high-quality German auto brand. Social responsibility is included in VW’s corporate culture and it seems that Volkswagen made some advances in Corporate Social Responsibility because the corporation was ranked 11th 2015 in the Global CSR Rep Track 100, which listed companies by reputation (Reputation Institute, 2015).However, the company has been threatened by an emission scandal which broke in September 2015, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disclosed that Volkswagen had installed defeat devices on diesel cars which were sold in the US. These devices equipped on VW cars cheated regulators in such a way that it could detect

The mistrust between the Volkswagen Company and their customers developed after the scandal associated with the incorrect emission of data and cheating of the system unfolded.  The scandal occurred on the eighteenth of September 2015 when it was found that the company had made a car with a turbo that released emission directly into the real word atmosphere. The allegations were genuine and were proved by the Environment Protection Agency in the United States (EPA) (Hotten, 2016).The chief

But was it ethical? This question will often be asked regarding the case of engineer James Liang and his role in the Volkswagen emission scandal. During the period of early 2006 to 2014, James Liang and his team of engineers developed a “defeat” device that allowed diesel powered vehicles to pass the EPA emission test, when in fact the vehicles were emitting up to 30 times the allowable limit. To many, this may seem a black and white case of ethics due to the fact that Liang’s team and Volkswagen blatantly cheated on a governmental testing regulation and then proceeded to falsely advertise the vehicles as “clean diesel and environmentally friendly” as reported by the United States Department of Justice; however, different ethical

Before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened their false advertising case against Volkswagen, the automaker was already involved in criminal

As a multinational corporation, the implication of the scandal determines the fate of numerous stakeholders both internal and external. Internal stakeholders comprise of the board, managers and employees while external stakeholders subsume shareholders, customers and suppliers. The economic, political and social impacts of the dishonest practices would shape the fate of Volkswagen and affect the future prospects of the automotive industry. Common shareholders whilst not involved in the day to day running of the business placed faith and belief in the firm by providing capital had suffered severe economic loss as share prices (get something for stat). Despite the callous deception in advertising the defeat device displayed no signs of disturbing vehicle performance, however, customers of Volkswagen and its subsidiary vehicles suffer from lower resale value. In addition, even though the scandal was global, European consumers were the most affected with diesel cars accounting for 41% of all European cars (Fontaras, 2016). This high percentage in respect to other nations is a result of incentives provided by the European Union for the purchase of diesel vehicles such as subsidies towards the production process resulting in lower premiums compared to petrol counterparts (Vidal, 2015) In additional with sales falling suppliers of Volkswagen would likely lose future contracts or have current contracts downgraded as less parts are required. Thus, this loss of future

James Liang was a engineer working for Volkswagen as the “leader of diesel competence” his role in the diesel emissions cheating scandal was to “calibrate the diesel engine software to recognize specific emissions tests’ drive cycles. The defeat devices themselves operated by detecting when a vehicle was being tested for emissions and turned on all emission control systems that otherwise remained off when the car detected it was driven on the road.” (autoweek) When the scandal broke nearly a decade later Liang was charged with and pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating the clean air act.(nytimes) Liang co-operated with the United States government and received a 40 month sentence and a 200,000 dollar fine.(cit) Volkswagen itself was required to pay 22 billion dollars in connection to the scandal.(nytimes)

The recent uproar over the sensitive issue of global climate change has aggressively expanded our government’s ever growing power over the American people. Through the government program too well known as the Environmental Protection Agency, our federal government has made environmental decisions effecting the American people numerous times without our consent. Our current Democratic President and his administration don’t help matters any, since they tend to give in when extreme environmentalists persistently push for these ideas. Needless to say, the Obama Administration’s ongoing force for drastic changes to environmental standards has allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to gain an alarming amount of power, and it is now resulting in harmful effects to many innocent American citizens.

The people at the West Virginia had tested vehicles as well as the EPA (Patel). Volkswagen chose to include rout programming device to cheat the system to pass the testing laws. Volkswagen as a corporation was basically trying to cut the cost of engines to be built by limiting the NOx emission system that controls how much dirty chemicals that goes into the air (Patel).By the company putting this device in their cars they were trying to cut down the cost that they would have to spend, at the same time Volkswagen cars had better performance. The ethical question would be is it really worth it to CHOSE to overlook the laws to save money on cash (Patel). "We expected better from Volkswagen," said Cynthia Giles, the E.P.A's. colleague manager for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance. She called the automaker's activities "a danger to general health of our

Diesel is a complementary good for the VWG diesel engine models (Sloman and Wride, 2009, p34,35). This means that any changes to the pricing of diesel would influence the quantity demand of VWG diesel cars. Especially, as there is an increasing rate of inflation and governmental concerns on carbon emission (Lea, 2017, pp1-3). Currently, the government has decided to go back on their tax cuts made in 2001(Asthana, 2016)(Swinford and Collins, 2014). This may increase the price of diesel in the further future, making prices a lot steeper for owners of diesel-engined cars (Swinford and Collins, 2014). This would decrease the quantity demand of future buyers towards diesel engine cars, such as VWG, however, it is more likely for the Volkswagen e-Golf to see an increase in quantity demanded as the influence of government spending £600 million electric cars and charging points, and working with manufacturers to reduce emissions (Asthana, 2016). Eventually, the use of

The Causes: Volkswagen installed computer software into their diesel engines that could detect when the car was undergoing emissions testing. The car would then switch into a more efficient mode, cutting air-fuel ratios and exhaust flows, and injecting a solution to make the emissions harmless, in order to be able to pass the strict U.S emission’s standards. However, when the car was not being tested, i.e. operating under real world situations, the software would shut down the emission controls which would increase the gas mileage making the car seem more fuel efficient. The EPA refers to technology that interferes with the emissions tests as “defeat devices.” It is believed that VW started implementing these devices in 2008 because the engines they had then developed at great cost to the company would not meet regulations.

When it comes to reducing carbon emissions that severely harm the environment, the automotive industry plays an important role. Penna and Geels stated that one of the biggest challenge society confront is climate change requiring improvement in carbon use by many industries and sectors. (2015). In the US, the amount of drivers aged 65 years old and over has increased by 17.3% from 1982 to 2003 (Meyer, 2009). According to Statistics Canada, Licensed drives increased from 15.964 to 21.674 (35.7%) from 1985 to 2004. Thus, trends show that more and more people are driving every day what also mean that more emissions are being generated every day too. To fix this giant issue, car industries need to find the most effective way since they still have to produce millions of cars. I strongly believe that eliminating the totality of carbon emission produced by cars can be successfully accomplished in a near future with the correct and viable “green” management strategy. What if one of the thousand car companies who are responsible for this problem can do it in a record time? BMW Group will have decreased the half of the carbon emissions (CO²) with their new fleet of cars in less than 3 years from now, taking 1995 as a base year (BMW Sustainable Report, 2014). With successful sustainable development, BMW Group has been able to reduce by 38% from 1995 to 2014 their vehicles carbon emissions (CO²) (BMW Sustainable Report, 2014). In Addition, BMW technology is presently considered as the

As an attempt to bypass vehicle emissions restrictions, Volkswagen knowingly used software that limits fumes during vehicle testing stages (“The Volkswagen Scandal”). By using this software, the company disguised the fact that its vehicles emitted nitrogen monoxide at 40 times the legal limit (Dans). Cheating on this test, so to speak, shows a lack of ethics on the part of the company. The primary motive for this deceit was, according to the Bocconi Students Investment Club, “to help Volkswagen win the crucial American market and replace Toyota as the number one car manufacturer in the world,” (“The Volkswagen Scandal”). Volkswagen showed a disregard for ethics and corporate social responsibility by secretly breaking environmental protection laws in order to achieve worldwide success.

Moreover, in the fuel economy website, it is mentioned that the fuel economy predicts the fuel economy tags and to calculate a producer 's corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) is received from car when the testing is done at EPA 's National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor which is in Michigan, and by whole car producers who sent their own data to EPA. Every year, EPA supplies car efficiency data to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Department of Energy (DOE) with this way they can manage their car efficiency which is associated with programs. (http://www.fueleconomy.gov). Many companies have many instructions in order to inform the costumers about fuel efficiency. However, on the other hand, none of these companies are certain on a particular car. That causes less motivation on drivers because they encounter with something mindboggling. Therefore, we will use the quality assurance and quality tools which

After the announcement of the emissions scandal, Volkswagen is fumbling to figure out how to pick up the broken pieces of its brand image. Volkswagen had ruined the trust of all of its stakeholders. The announcement of the cheated emissions test has crushed Volkswagen’s stock price by almost 20%, which implies an almost $27 billion loss in market value. This scandal required the recall of 11 million cars with an expected cost of over $25 billion in penalty fees and the cost to fix recalled vehicles. This scandal of much higher than stated emissions directly contradicted with Volkswagen’s branding of a clean emission diesel vehicle. It could not have gotten much counter-intuitive. Volkswagen has spent 45% of its television advertising budget directly focusing on Volkswagen’s products’ low emissions. That marketing budget is now valueless. However, most importantly, Volkswagen upset its customer base. The owners of these recalled vehicles not only feel lied to and betrayed, they have to take time to bring their recalled car in to get fixed. But, one of the biggest complaints is the loss of resale value totalling nearly $5000. This may disrupt repeat customers and