Volkswagen guilty of more than just altering emission readings

By Gerry Murphy

Timing is everything in business and the press releases coming from Audi about the launch of the new Audi A4 could have been better timed for obvious reasons.

The Volkswagen Group diesel disaster has been in mainstream news for all sorts of reasons and, in my view, because the company has been so slow to address the issues for its customers, it has created a vacuum and it has been filled with all sorts of commentary that is mostly callously critical

Europe’s largest carmaker, who recently boasted about being the world’s biggest car maker – something the moguls of the car industry in the United States do not like – and currently claims to be Ireland’s leading brand, has admitted to using software to rig diesel emissions tests in the US and in Europe, where Volkswagen sells about 40% of its vehicles.

Volkswagen and it subsidiaries are under huge pressure to get to grips with a crisis that sent shock waves through the global auto industry and could ultimately damage Germany’s economy. Heads have rolled internally, with the CEO Martin Winterkorn resigning and the heads of Research and Development being suspended, but there are now real fears that the damage could also hit the European economy extremely hard and that the Irish economy could creak in the aftershocks too.

In Ireland, only in the last few days have we heard what they are planning to do for their Irish owners across the Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Seat brands. It is about time too that they tell their Irish customers exactly what is happening. Hiding behind the circumspect corporate brand public relations machine is just not acceptable, not to mention the perceived lack of respect for the person who has signed the cheque, or taken their offer of PCP finance for a car that does not do exactly as it says on the tin.

Customers are asked to log in to the Volkswagen Ireland website, click on the EA 189 Campaign icon and enter the registration number of their car. This will confirm if your car is involved. Customers will be informed in the coming weeks and months about how their cars will be retrofitted.

The cars affected are models with 1.6 litre or 2.0 litre TDI diesel engines of the type EA 189 and certified according to the European emission standard EU5. The same engines defined here apply in Ireland too. The company is adamant that these cars continue to be roadworthy and technically safe without any restrictions.

The 1.6-litre and 2.0 litre TDI engines certified according to the new EU6 emission standard are not affected, nor are V6 and V8 TDI engines, irrespective of whether they are certified according to EU5 or EU6. Volkswagen Group Ireland may have to recall over 110,000 cars, made up of 80,000 cars sold as new in Ireland and up to 30,000 cars that were imported from Northern Ireland and the UK.

To be fair to the Volkswagen Group, there has been a lot of misinformation out there in the last two weeks. While they have admitted to hiding the truth about health-threatening NOx (Nitrogen Oxide) emissions for so long, they will pay a heavy price for their cover-up when the multitudes of lawsuits start appearing. However, they have also been very slack in coming forward with the whole truth to their customers and the parent company must take the majority of the blame for that.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.