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VW Engineers Say They Forged CO2 Emissions to Please Former CEO Martin Winterkorn

While Volkswagen initially said the emissions rigging devices were the work of a few "rogue" engineers, nobody actually believed there were terrorist factions within the company that operated under the cover of darkness. It seems the whistleblower strategy, where employees who come clean receive job protection, has worked brilliantly.
Touareg TDI 1 photo
Photo: Catalin Garmacea
German newspaper Bild am Sonntag has published a report claiming that the former CEO, Dr. Martin Winterkorn, is blamed by many for the falsely declared CO2 emissions.

Several engineers admitted they manipulated the numbers to please the former boss, who was forced to step down on September 23.

Motor oil mixed into diesel fuel?!

According to the German media, VW employees admit they fiddled with the tire pressure (stiff tires have lower rolling resistance). We've heard other companies do this as well, exploiting loopholes in the tests by also installing slimmer tires that are offered as an option. However, VW engineers also mixed motor oil with the diesel to reduce consumption.

Of course, if cars ran reliably on this setup, we'd all be using it. Not to mention tires with high pressure are noisy, lose traction and may explode.

Automotive News says the rigging started in 2013 and ended at the beginning of 2015. This is an entirely different problem from the scandal surrounding the so-called "defeat devices" discovered in the US. So now, Volkswagen has two potentially monstrous problems on its hands.

Did Winterkorn really know?

Of course, we have no way to prove that something unnamed employees reportedly told a German magazine is true. However, former CEO Martin Winterkorn is famous for both micro-managing every project and obsessing over the idea of turning VW into the biggest player in the green car market. Ironically, his actions have had the opposite effect.

In March 2012, Winterkorn made a public statement at the Geneva Motor Show saying that he wanted to cut CO2 emissions by 30% by 2015. It may not be a case of engineers not wanting to tell him that this was impossible to achieve, but one where they feared for their job security.

Winterkorn's predecessor, Ferdinand Piëch, also ruled the German company with an iron fist, reportedly telling the people who made the Golf 4 that they would be immediately fired if they cannot make a world-class interior.

Matthias Müller probably knew all this when he said Volkswagen needed to be a company that's fun to work for once again and that he would not dwell on every detail.

Can we blame Winterkorn for wanting lower emissions? No, that's what governments want, and they tax accordingly. Can we blame him if he forced engineers to do something they couldn't and sold cars with falsified numbers? Definitely.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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