Dusseldorf Two Indians and a Swiss student were the first to find out about Volkswagen. All three were enrolled at West Virginia University, where they worked at the Institute for Emissions Research on how vehicles could be made more environmentally friendly. The German manufacturers seemed to be leaders on this topic. The students wanted to know exactly how the superior technology from Good Old Germany worked.
So fate took its course. The students made a mobile test device for exhaust gases. This allowed them to measure the values in road traffic and did not have to rely on the numbers from the test laboratories. And lo and behold: the real exhaust gas values were many times higher than advertised.
In this episode of Handelsblatt Crime, we trace how the students’ findings reached the Environment Agency. We also introduce the compliance department of Volkswagen. 550 employees who did nothing else all day than ensure compliance with the company’s own rules – and still had no idea about the biggest fraud in German car history.
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This was said to also apply to Martin Winterkorn. The almighty CEO of Volkswagen had a so-called weekend suitcase given to him every Friday. This includes: the most important topics in the group, which the detail-obsessed workaholic Winterkorn wanted to have worked through by Monday morning.
However, in August 2014 of all times, when Winterkorn’s suitcase contained information about far too high exhaust gas values in diesel engines, Germany’s best-paid car manager apparently wasn’t really paying attention. And even at the damage table set up for problem analysis, high-ranking Volkswagen managers didn’t want to solve the problems in July 2015, they wanted to cover them up. A few weeks later, after a meeting with the Environmental Protection Agency in California, one emailed: “Shit. Totally gone wrong!”
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More: You can hear the last episode of Handelsblatt Crime here.