‘Volkswagen emissions fraud started in 1999’

This video from the USA says about itself:

Steve Berman Investigates VW, Audi for Diesel Emissions-Cheating Software

18 September 2015

Hagens Berman has filed a national class-action lawsuit against Volkswagen for allegedly sidestepping emissions rules and cheating pollution tests, in violation of state laws and consumers’ rights. Federal and California environmental regulators have accused Volkswagen of using software to cheat emissions standards in its diesel Audi and Volkswagen automobiles years 2009-2015.

Read more here.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

Today, 18:53

Not the Volkswagen brand but the Audi brand is said to be the source of the deception with fraudulent software at the Volkswagen Group. Audi is one of the brands of the corporation. Four top level Audi engineers have been suspended because they had been working for many years on the development of the fraudulent software.

The disclosure is made by a number of German media, including the Süddeutsche Zeitung, based on their own research. They have been able to find the more important parts of the internal investigation at Volkswagen conducted by the US law firm Jones Day. It appears from those documents that the deception had already begun in 1999.

The automaker then wanted to reduce the noise of diesels. A side effect was that the cars then would emit more pollutants. Then fraudulent software was invented. With this software in the cars, the cars in admission tests are OK with the standards for nitrogen oxide emissions. If the car is put into operation, then the software will switch itself off and the car will produce much more noxious stuff than is legal.

The latest accusations are about 3.0-liter engines also having been equipped with the cheating software. Previously, the auto company had already admitted that 600,000 Audis with 1.6 and 2.0 liter engines were affected. Supposedly, then the initiative for that fraud came from the Volkswagen brand of the group.

‘Mother of deception’

In an email dated 2007 Audi executives discussed the stringent emissions standards in the United States. In it an Audi manager says inter alia: “Without fraud we will not succeed.” Audi is also said to have been the driving force in the deception with the Volkswagen brand models. Within the Volkswagen group, subsidiary Audi is now seen as the “Mother of deception,” according to reports.

An interesting fact is that the current CEO of the Volkswagen Group, Matthias Müller, was previously CEO at Audi. Muller was passed from Audi to Volkswagen last year to succeed CEO Martin Winterkorn. Winterkorn had to leave after the fraudulent software scandal came out a year ago.

Ongoing trial

Audi and Volkswagen do not want to comment on the latest reports to German media. They refer to the ongoing lawsuit in the United States. The US court is also in possession of documents by Jones Day. According to the US justice department Audi had already started in 2004 with software cheating. Former CEO Winterkorn is said to have known this from 2006 on.

The German justice department is only investigating, there is no trial yet.

Audi USA uses as its slogan “Truth in Engineering”. …

Volkswagen engineer James Liang confesses his role in emissions fraud: here.