VW Faces $17B Fine for Emissions Scam

Ed is a small businessman trying to make a buck and this Portland-to-Portland stunt was his best effort. But I think someone misinformed him the Prius can't handle high speeds in cold weather, some nonsense I remember seeing in Motor Trend or Car and Driver article in 2006-07 from a bogus, dead of winter test.

Now if he had done a 'race across Montana' into a winter headwind, at speeds above 85 mph, with enough ballast to equal fully loaded cars, the results could have been different BUT he didn't ask me. There is data suggesting a knee in the Gen-2 curve at 85 mph. A fully load Prius vs Jetta TDI and both fighting a headwind, the results could have been more to his liking.

As for emissions and the impact on fuel efficiency, well it isn't something I'm terribly worried about for a Jetta TDI above 55-65 mph. But I will plead ignorance as I haven't had a Jetta TDI test article ... nor any interest in getting one.

There is a special edge case, setting the cruise control to 42 mph on the Prius. At the hybrid threshold speed, there would be multiple engine start-stop events triggered by transiting the 42 mph barrier. A special 'edge case', well we don't have to advertise this much, do we?

Bob Wilson

 

Would Green Human John have put the Prius in front, with the TDI following in the wake?

 

More than opinion, he is the guy that gives directives.

 

Yes, I read it in UK on Thursday as a quoted article from Auto Express.

 

Ah good to know... My UK mate sent me the link. He was somewhat disappointed because he really like diesels. Oh well, no more Toyota for him I guess.

SM-G900I ?

 

he states in the article that it is just his opinion, so i'll have to take his word for it.

quote: 'my personal opinion - and this is my personal opinion - is no, we'll not launch another diesel car', he said.

 

Launching another diesel vs continuing the use ..... vs doing away with diesel ... lotta distance between each step. These are all the industry can handle ..... baby steps.
.

 

@bisco

“We also took the view, a long time ago, that we would not sell the C-HR [crossover] with a diesel engine,” he added. “At the time, the distributors were against my decision - and it was my decision. They said they needed diesel for the market. But I said, ‘No! No! No!’ We needed to follow the long-term trend and that is eco-vehicles.”

Well, this quote shows how much he really gives opinion, personal or corporative one...

 

Didn't the author say somewhere that Toyota's diesels were through cooperation with BMW. How near is that to them actually being BMW diesels?

 

In Europe.
Toyota Exec Predicts Company Will Stop Launching Diesels in Europe - Motor Trend

Toyota came out with their own new 2.X liter diesel just a couple of years ago.
Toyota GD engine - Wikipedia
Like everything else, Toyota is going to squeeze all the profit they can out of it.

 

GD engine is used only in Hilux pick-up and Landcruiser. That segment will be longer on diesel engines.

 

Yes. Just saying any announcements of Toyota saying no more diesels shouldn't be taken at face value.

 

Looks like the USA is driving forward with our own dieselgate:
http://m.truckinginfo.com/news/271331/epa-aiming-to-pull-glider-kits-from-ghg-mpg-rule

. . .
Though glider kits account for a small percentage of total new truck sales, the older-model diesel engines they are powered by produce far more exhaust emissions than current engines, contended EPA during the Obama administration.

At the time, the agency had become concerned at a surge in sales, from a few hundred per year 10 to 20 years ago to more than 20,000 in 2015. Most of those were highway tractors, and were undisguised efforts to get around modern emissions limits and the expensive engines needed to meet them, the agency claimed.

As currently written, the glider kit restrictions will phase out gliders over the next four years. Beginning this January, volume production and sales of gliders using “pre-emission” diesels will be greatly curtailed. But low-volume builders, including individual truckers, may continue to buy and assemble glider kits using older engines until 2021.
. . .​

A 'glider' is a vehicle without a drive train. So in effect older, polluting engines could be fitted into a new body.

Bob Wilson

 

I've seen a couple of articles about increased truck sales this year. Neither mentioned gliders. they were more interested in the implications for the economy such an increase might mean.

 

Source: Ex-Volkswagen manager gets 7 years in diesel emissions scandal

A federal court judge in Detroit sentenced a former Volkswagen manager Wednesday to 7 years in prison and ordered him to pay $400,000 in the company's massive diesel emissions cheating scandal, but Judge Sean Cox made clear that justice has not yet been served.
. . .
Prosecutors portrayed Schmidt, a German national who will be deported after serving his sentence, as uncooperative. They said he destroyed documents pertinent to the investigation and encouraged subordinates to do the same, lied about his involvement and was a key player in the conspiracy, which cost VW about $17 billion in civil settlements and an extra $4.3 billion to settle criminal charges.
. . .
​

Bob Wilson

 

Sounds pretty severe for someone at his level. I wonder what it will be for senior management team... if they ever get caught, that is.

SM-G900I ?

 

Makes me wonder how much the senior management team will get to either him or his family for keeping his mouth shut & doing the time. Must be a lot.
.

 

My understanding is there was about an 18 month period when CARB, the EPA, and U. of WV were running road tests and VW, this guy, kept coming back with "Oh you need to do <misdirection>." Estimate $80-$120,000 salary for each employee working the problem and the three cars and associated expenses, it soon adds up to several times the fine. Call it the 'delay of game' fine.

A credible argument can also be made of cost of the judges, lawyers and investigators who after admission of the fraud had to deal with the after effects. Now we are looking at an order of magnitude.

Bob Wilson

 

Hope it was worth it. I owned one of the scandal bombs, so no love lost here.

 

Another victim of the cheat, other car makers.

Now imagine you’re Mazda, GM or Volvo, and you’ve been struggling for years to design a system like Volkswagen’s that meets emissions standards without using urea and supposedly “without sacrificing performance or economy.” You’d have your engineers camping in dyno cells running tests on VWs day in and day out.

In my mind, someone somewhere surely must have been losing their cool thinking about how the Jetta TDI manages to meet emissions requirements, still produce plenty of power, meet durability targets, and get good fuel economy. Surely that same person must have tested this thing and figured out Volkswagen’s secret. At some point they almost would have been looking for a cheat.​

What this means is there were few competing diesels as they could not figure out how a non-urea system could be made to work.

Bob Wilson