Items tagged with diesel
The finish line is in sight for Volkswagen, and more importantly, diesel owners that were innocently caught up in the German auto giant’s emissions cheating scandal. Although an official settlement offer is expected to be revealed on June 28th, sources close to Volkswagen are revealing that the company will pay $10.2 billion to settle the matter. That $10.2 billion figure includes penalties that Volkswagen will have to pay to the United States environmental agencies, and funds to buyback affected diesel vehicles that can’t be brought into compliance with EPA requirements the company has cheated for years. Customers will also be given a separate cash payment as a goodwill gesture for their inconvenience...
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It seems as though Volkswagen would do just about anything to take the public’s mind off its diesel emissions scandal. VW’s popular TDI has taken a huge hit in the United States as a result, and the company is looking to electric vehicles as the future of its “green” push. That change in direction is made readily apparent by the introduction of the BUDD-e concept vehicle at CES, which is seen as a Microbus for the 21st century. You won’t find a TDI or even one of VW’s gasoline engines under the hood the BUDD-e. Instead, you’ll be greeted with a single electric motor under the hood, and another electric motor in the rear of the vehicle nestled below the...
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Well folks, here’s the first of Volkswagen’s actions to “make customers” whole with regards to #DieselGate. In case you need a refresher, Volkswagen admitted to installing a “defeat device” on 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engines (under the TDI brand name), allowing them to ace the EPA’s emissions tests. However, under normal driving conditions, the vehicles emitted harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) up to 40 times greater than what’s legally permissible. In the wake of the scandal, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn stepped down, the number of affected vehicles swelled to over 11 million worldwide, and resale value for affected TDI vehicles in the U.S. have plummeted (even gasoline-engine Volkswagens...
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Well, that didn’t take long. Less than a week after a wide-ranging emissions cheating scandal broke involving diesel-engine cars sold in the United States, Martin Winterkorn has announced that he is stepping down from his post as Volkswagen CEO. Although we have a feeling that Winterkorn was kicked out the door with a well-shined wingtip, we’ll just follow the party line that he “resigned.” Earlier this week, Winterkorn attempted to put a brave face on the serious situation, stating, “I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public. We will cooperate fully with the responsible agencies, with transparency and urgency, to clearly, openly, and completely...
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Things just keep getting worse for Volkswagen, but it only has itself to blame for its newfound troubles. We’ve already told you about the emissions scandal that the German automaker is currently embroiled in, but it looks as though the number of affected vehicles is way more than the 482,000 that were sold in the United States between 2008 and 2015. Volkswagen has confirmed that the software cheat that it used to game the EPA’s emissions tests with its Type EA 189 diesel engines was actually used worldwide. As a result, the United States’ EPA is the least of Volkswagen’s troubles at this point. In total, over 11 million vehicles have this software installed which makes passing emissions test...
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This is just the beginning of what will no doubt be a long, public, and very expensive flogging for German automaker Volkswagen. We reported late last week that the company got caught cheating on U.S. EPA emissions tests by using a “defeat device.” To put it succinctly, VW programed the engine control units (ECU) of its vehicles equipped with 2.0-liter diesel engines to operate more cleanly when it detected that the EPA’s usual battery of emissions tests were being performed. However, under normal driving situations, the vehicles were emitting far more harmful pollutants into the air — in some cases up to 40 times the level of nitrogen oxides (NOx) than what’s permissible. Now that VW’s wide-scale...
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Whoa, Nelly! Volkswagen has gotten caught with its hands in the cookie jar, and its offense is pretty egregious. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has accused the Volkswagen Group of purposefully programming its engine control units (ECU) to detect when federally-mandated emissions tests are being run on vehicle. When laboratory testing is detected, a so-called “defeat device” is triggered that allows the vehicle’s engine to run in a special mode allowing it to pass emissions tests with flying colors. There’s one big problem with this scheme, however; when the vehicle is driven under normal circumstances, it is not operating in a EPA-certified, emission-legal state. In fact, the vehicles...
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