Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Volkswagen Emission Case
Volkswagen Emission Case
Volkswagen became the target of regulatory investigations in multiple countries, [19] and
Volkswagen's stock price fell in value by a third in the days immediately after the news.
Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned, and the head of brand
development Heinz-Jakob Neusser, Audi research and development head Ulrich
Hackenberg, and Porsche research and development head Wolfgang Hatz were
suspended. Volkswagen announced plans to spend US$7.3 billion on rectifying the
emissions issues, and planned to refit the affected vehicles as part of a recall campaign.
The Volkswagen emissions scandal raised awareness over the higher levels of
pollution being emitted by all vehicles built by a wide range of car makers, which under
real world driving conditions are prone to exceed legal emission limits. A study
conducted by ICCT and ADAC showed biggest deviations from Volvo, Renault, Jeep,
Hyundai, Citron and Fiat. A discussion was sparked that software-controlled machinery
will generally be prone to cheating, and a way out would be to make the software
source code accessible to the public.
1. Speedometer, steering wheel sensors and air pressure sensors send data to
central computer
CONSEQUENCES
Deaths
A peer-reviewed study published in Environmental Research Letters estimated that
approximately 59 premature deaths will be caused by the excess pollution produced
between 2008 and 2015 by vehicles equipped with the defeat device in the U.S., the
majority due to particulate pollution (87%) with the remainder due to ozone (13%). The
study also found that that making these vehicles emissions compliant by the end of
2016 would avert an additional 130 early deaths.
Earlier studies published in media sources, that had not been subjected to peer review,
provided point estimates ranging from approximately 10 to 350 excess deaths in the
U.S. related to the defeat devices based on varying assumptions .