Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on October 5, 2015
Many readers are aware of the scandal that has emerged within the last two weeks involving Volkswagen, whose employees purposely installed software on their diesel cars that would give lower than actual readings in the emissions testing process. Not only did this action permit these cars to pass emission tests, the results were also used in VW’s strategy to market their “clean diesel” vehicle technology.
To state that VW’s actions were a gross violation of trust is an understatement. This was not an unintended action that can occasionally embarrass a company who has every intention to do the right thing. This was a deliberate action to violate the law and fraudulently sell cars to customers who thought they were buying vehicles that met mandated pollution standards.
In an article published Sept. 21, Reuters reported that “evidence of increased toxic emissions at VW first emerged in 2014, prompting the California Air Resources Board to start investigating VW. Volkswagen initially denied it was trying to game the inspections, attributing the higher emissions to ‘various technical issues and unexpected in-use conditions,’ the EPA said.”
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