Volkswagen’s not so ‘clean diesel’
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- Published on Thursday, September 24, 2015
Photo courtesy of caricos.com. About 11 million Volkwagen cars were found to have computer code to fool emissions testing equipment.
By Neils Mack
The Neepawa Banner
Tail pipe emissions are a big deal, we know this because everywhere we look, new hybrid models and new electric cars are being announced.
This is actually great news, since electric motors offer so much power and efficiency and ask almost nothing in return for fuel costs. However, we are often skeptical. As Manitobans, we push our cars beyond their tested limits without even thinking. When your vehicle sits outside in a -50°C day, we start it up without a second thought. We do this day after day, year after year. Automakers might have tested this for a week or two, but this is our day-to-day lives here. So when a new, unproven technology shows up, you can’t really blame the skeptics.
So how do we get more for less while playing it safe? We know this answer well, it’s diesel motors. Diesel fuel is more energy dense than gasoline and the engine it’s burnt in is more effective at turning that energy into motion efficiently.
The Germans have been doing this for years, diesel burning Mercedes, BMW, Audi and VW models have been around much longer than I have. A few years back, with some extremely careful driving, a VW Passat went 2,600 km on a single tank of diesel. As far as efficiency in an internal combustion engine goes, diesel is pretty much the pinnacle.
That’s not the end of the story though, diesels need sophisticated exhaust cleaning systems because the untreated tail pipe emissions are very dirty.
Automakers have done their due diligence and engineered their way out of this problem creating clean diesels.
That’s what we’ve been lead to believe, anyhow. It turns out that in the case of Volkswagen, their catch phrase should be “insidious diesels”. The Volkswagen 2.0 litre, four cylinder turbo diesel engine that they have been using from 2009 to current was built with a few software tricks up its sleeve.
When a car is emissions tested, it is plugged into a computer that runs it through its paces. A clever VW employee programmed the car to be extra clean and green when it detected it was being emissions tested. Not unlike during a test when your school teacher walked past and you hid the answers written inside your hand from their view. When the VW TDI was out of the school teacher’s view, it suddenly became a polluting maniac. The 2.0 TDI models, when unplugged, exceed the allowed amounts of pollutants by as much as 40 times! If you have a Jetta, Golf, Beetle, Passat or Audi A3 TDI between the years of 2009 and current, you can rethink your “Clean Diesel” statement.
Volkswagen has yet to announce a solution to the problem. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, CEO of VW has said that he is “deeply sorry” and that VW will “fully cooperate” with EPA and will work “with transparency and urgency” to investigate the matter.
Volkswagen has pulled all traces of diesel off of their website and social media. It’s like it never existed! They’ve even removed their SUV, the 3.0 litre diesel Touareg, which makes me wonder if it’s a cheat too. You can no longer go to VW and purchase a diesel car at this point in time.
Initially it was said that 482,000 vehicles would be effected, but Volkwagen has admitted that up to 11 million vehicles have this software installed. This would include models like the Porsche Cayenne Diesel and Audi A7, A6, A8, Q7 and Q5 TDI.
The company saw huge stock depreciation the day after this was discovered – a loss of up to $16 billion in value. They are potentially facing up to that much in fines for the cars as well, as EPA can fine $37,500 per vehicle.
The emissions tests may be tough, but everyone else seems to have passed them no sweat. Maybe a shake-up in the efficient technology wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Corruption seems to happen when people are not kept on their toes. It will take months to settle this ordeal and longer for VW to recover. Mercedes chose the same day to announce it will be focusing on plug in hybrid models over developing new diesels. It’s hard to cheat emissions when a car is running on hydro.
