Research Proposal On Volkswagen

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

The company had a lot of pressure to get their diesel vehicles on the road which were advertised as having low emissions and being overall better for the environment. Volkswagen created a ‘defeat device’ which allowed them to cheat their way through the emissions test and get their vehicles on the road quickly without having to address the issue. When they were caught, the company admitted to having over 11 million cars world-wide containing this device and were releasing emissions up to 40 times the legal limit in the United States. Volkswagen planned on recalling some of the vehicles privately before the scandal was revealed, but once it was found out, all the cars were reimbursed but the company also had to pay fines for each car that violated the standards (Hotten, 2015). While the company did experience quite a financial loss as a result of this large-scale scandal, no individual people were punished or convicted of anything due to the fact that it is nearly impossible to pinpoint who is at fault. Due to the fact that they are a large, relatively wealthy company, they figured it would be easy for them to get away with what they did, because of the way white-collar crimes are approached by the criminal justice system. Had a company or individual of lower economic status tried to attempt a similar crime, the punishments would have been more severe and individual persons would have been picked out and punished for the crimes committed, likely resulting in job loss or

Volkswagen company put sensors in the emission component, so when tested, the examiner sees that the car meets emission standards. But because the sensors are to meet U.S emission standards, the car itself can be modified to ignore the sensor’s override and make the car believe it was in use. TFL motors was curious about the scam, so they decided to put a Jetta TDI turbo diesel on an AWD Dyno, to confuse the car into thinking it’s on the street, not being checked for emissions. Being in emissions mode, the AWD dyno lost horsepower and torque, but without the sensors active the car produced excess diesel exhaust, going over the EPA regulated limit. The car itself was able to perform at a higher level without the sensors active, proving reason to hide the fact that excess exhaust is produced. Certain companies realize the regulations hold their products back, so to promote the fuel efficiency and or horsepower of the car, they would gladly hide the fact that their cars are emitting excess diesel exhaust. Some ways to prevent excess exhaust would be to install EGR coolers, or to buy tuners for your engine’s valves. But many professional truckers tend to stick with rolling coal. “Rolling coal” can happen by making a smoke switch, or removing emission controls on truck models, and adding a tuner to produce fine smoke build ups. Diesel exhaust is actually less harmful then a

Volkswagon was caught cheating on their diesel emissions by a man named Daniel Carder and his small research team at West Virginia University in late 2012 through May 2013. The team consisted of a research professor, two graduate students, a faculty member and himself. Their team originally wanted to investigate emissions to help the diesel cars in Europe. There has been much data suggesting vehicles in Europe have high nitrogen oxides and dioxides. The goal was to look at emissions in the U.S. where the emission standards were very strict. It was thought that if the cars were found to be clean, then they could take the data results to Europe, and say “why can’t you do the same in Europe?” The small research team had been granted $50,000

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

The American Auto Industry, in the form of vehicles it produces, account for almost one-fifth of emissions in the United States. Subtracting emissions created from production,

GM was preparing for EPA testing when the Volkswagen scandal broke in September. In response, the EPA noted that it would pay extra special

In September 2016, a breaking news that Volkswagen will face US $18 billion in fines attracts a lot of eyeballs. James Liang, an engineer who worked for Volkswagen for 30 years, was one of protagonists in this scandal. Liang helped to design a so-called “clean diesel”, which Liang and his team knew could not meet the stricter American emissions standards. However, to help vehicles equipped with this kind of engine to be able sold in the United States, they installed software that cut back on pollution during emissions testing. The number of affected cars sold is about 500,000. Liang has pleaded guilty to U.S. federal and would face up to five years in federal prison. This is not only

First, by drawing from Burki’s (2015) article on, I will discuss one of the main factors that gave rise to VW being able to falsify their emission tests and how it can be prevented in the future. Burki noted that the testing system

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

With billions of dollars invested and hundreds of thousands of Americans employed (Department of Commerce, n.d.), the automobile industry has a vast influence in the United States. Since the time Henry Ford developed the assembly line production (Statista, n.d.) the industry has grown into a global market with no signs of slowing down. Top car companies are constantly searching for new innovations to set them apart from their competitors. Among those companies is Volkswagen (VW). A company which strides in emissions and fuel efficiency turned, not only to be false, but caused a severe amount of damage (Ewing, 2016).

technology project. The BPTO produced weekly status reports and monthly budget reviews helping the company gauge where it was heading towards. Thus the alignment started advancing (Austin, 2007).

One of Volkswagen’s biggest strength is their robust research and development. VW focuses on expanding its strong brand and product portfolio while improving the functionality, quality, safety and environmental compatibility of their products. Volkswagen also focuses on electrification of their vehicle range to create an efficient range of engines and lightweight construction while working on increasing its alternative drive technology. VW’s robust focus on research and development has allowed them acquire several patents. In Fiscal year 2015, the group filed 6,244 patents globally for employee inventions. VW primarily focuses its R&D on 11 areas, which includes powertrain development, body

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