Volkswagen Emission Scandal-Analysis

Overview

In September, 2015 Volkswagen admitted that it had installed defeat devices in 11 million diesel
engines worldwide to make the cars seem less polluting. It led to a devastating series of critical
consequences to its stakeholders.

The US Environmental Protection agency discovered that around 482000 VW diesel engine cars were
emitting 40 times more toxic fumes than the permitted level on American roads. The company later
admitted that this cheat will affect around 11 million cars worldwide.

Volkswagen used defeat devices which is not a physical device but customized software that
programmed diesel engines to detect when car is undergoing pollution test. It was programmed in such
a way that it turned full emission control for nitrogen oxide as ON only during the test.

The International Council on clean transportation performed independent on-road test on the VW
Passat, VW Jetta and BMW X5. The emission performance of VW cars were worse than expected .But
when it was tested on dynamometer, the test was successful. This ambiguous behavior was then
reported to EPA by ICCT.
Impact on health and environment

The increased Nitrogen oxide emission was hazardous in nature and affected the whole environment.
The fumes can cause inflammation of the airways and worsen the breathing for the people. Nox
emission can also react with other compounds and cause respiratory problems and heart attacks. Long
exposures can lead to cardiovascular illness and also lead to death.

Social Media Reactions

Recommendations

It is evident that Volkswagen follows autocratic kind of culture and compliance based business ethic
declines to treat employees ethically .The employees often face dilemma of losing their job or to take
unethical decisions and that is one of the reasons of any company going down. In order to have a
successful company, the actions of employees play a critical role and its equally important to value
employees and boost their moral standard to accomplish task ethically. The values based system
promotes democracy within the company and it gives employees the leeway to share their opinions to
superiors and also voice their concerns. This boosts the productivity if the employees as a whole.
Volkswagen should follow the value based culture because todays business environment is completely
different from the past.

EPA plays a key role in providing stringent emission standards and also provides aids to Automakers
Company in terms of technology and research and development to prevent such incidents in future.

References

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nazanin_Mansouri/publication/303797234_A_Case_Study_of_V
olkswagen_Unethical_Practice_in_Diesel_Emission_Test/links/5845430908ae2d217566e80c/A-Case-
Study-of-Volkswagen-Unethical-Practice-in-Diesel-Emission-Test.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2015/sep/23/volkswagen-emissions-scandal-
explained-diesel-cars