Volkswagen dethroned Toyota as the best selling manufacturer in the universe earlier this year. They tarnished the crown worse than Tom Brady and the Patriots. They were caught and spent a year denying they did anything. If you haven’t heard about the Volkswagen diesel issues, check out the letter from the EPA to VW: vw-nov-caa-09-18-15. Now, unlike the Patriots, they are getting their comeuppance: stock plummeting, half a million cars recalled, stopped selling effected models, CEO Martin Winterkorn is out a job, and they are looking at a hefty fine. So begins Dieslegate!
What is the Fix?
Perhaps some of the $18 billion will be spent on test tracks for emissions testing. There must be control of test conditions; however, a test should not evaluate emissions on a dynamometer, it should emulate real world driving. Dynamometer tests provide artificial results. Many new vehicles have adaptive programming for when a vehicle is being tested. (it’s a necessity) and even if they did not, having only two wheels turning effects performance. Next year there will be real-driving emissions (RDE) testing which will test emissions with the rubber meeting the road.
