Dieselgate: VW kyboshed tighter tests
Watchdog finds Volkswagen bullied EU in test criteriaAn old email has resurfaced to show how Volkswagen strong-armed the European Union into ditching critical parts of its upcoming real-world emissions tests.
The company, under fire for cheating on NOx emissions tests with four- and six-cylinder diesel engines and on CO2 tests with both petrol and diesel engines, lobbied against high-speed and cold-start testing.
The email, uncovered by the advocacy group Corporate Europe Observatory, proved a Volkswagen senior executive writing to the European Commission (the EU’s executive body) saying that: “Such topics must be deleted.”
Though the executive’s name has been edited out, it runs counter to the Volkswagen Group’s new-found commitment to ethics, transparency and accountability. Volkswagen has refused to name the executive responsible for the email, though sources at Volkswagen confirmed its veracity.
“We cannot agree to a regulation including undefined topics like cold start or high speed,” the email stated.
Volkswagen would have been particularly exposed to any high-speed tests, with sports and supercars from the Audi RS 3, RS 4, RS 6, RS 7 and R8, Bentley’s Continental GT, the Bugatti Veyron and upcoming Chiron, the Lamborghini Hurucan and Aventador, Porsche’s Boxster, Cayman, 911, 911 Turbo, 918, Macan Turbo and Cayenne Turbo, plus Volkswagen’s own Golf R on its books.
Cars produce significant amounts of pollution when their engines and their catalytic converters are cold, as well as at very high speed when fuel is often used as a de facto coolant on turbocharged engines.
The new real-world tests, which have yet to pass through the European Parliament, have been conceived to bring the official fuel consumption figures closer to what an owner might experience and budget for. The current NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) test is a pure laboratory test, run in the same conditions, with the same tyre pressures, temperature, humidity, synthesised topography, speeds and acceleration rates.
Volkswagen sources insist that the email wasn’t written with purely Volkswagen Group interests in mind, but had been written on behalf of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), though its spokeswoman could not confirm whether other carmakers had contributed to the decision.
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