Volkswagen Knew About Emissions Issue One Year Before The Public

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It's been six months since Volkswagen's infamous "Dieselgate" emissions scandal began. Since then, the German automaker has fired U.S. CEO Michael Horn, they face billions in fines, lawsuits and bad PR, and they will likely miss their March 24 deadline to announce a solution to the problem. All the while, they have pleaded ignorance; claiming they did not know so-called "defeat devices" had been installed in their cars.

However, that might not be the whole story. News broke earlier this month that VW brass may have had prior knowledge of the emission-altering software in 2014, one year before the problem went public. 

Last September, the International Council on Clean Transportation discovered the issue. They found that VW diesels built for the U.S. passed emission tests, but spewed pollutants when tested on the road. Per a VW statement, "on May 23, 2014, a memo (regarding this study) was prepared for Martin Winterkorn ( then-chairman of the management board, Volkswagen AG)... Whether and to which extent Mr. Winterkorn took notice of this memo at that time is not documented."

Winterkorn received another memo in November of 2014, briefing him again about the diesel emission issues. Volkswagen says that "the diesel matter ... was treated as one of many product issues facing the company." They did not believe this to be indicative of the potential scope of the problem.

Volkswagen executives attended a meeting in July of 2015 to discuss product issues, during which time their emission-cheating devices were discussed. However, they didn't visit with technicians until August of that year. That's when they were told that the software was considered a "prohibited defeat device under U.S. law."  The news went public the following month.

The German auto maker says they are close to narrowing down who installed the devices that forced them to recall  over 11 million diesel vehicles. Their blunder could also cost VW around $48 billion in penalties should the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice win their respective lawsuits against them. 

 

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