Something Continues to Smell about the So Called VW Scandal Almost every week, there are indications in the Press that something stinks. Every diesel-making OEMs has been accused of cheating. [Six so far] Most recently examples of press reports-- Keith Crain editorial in the July 24 issue of Automotive News; BMW making denials about their diesel vehicles; FCA was accused of manipulating results. GM made denials when reports recently occurred. Seems that only the Asians who have never been into diesel powered vehicle have escaped. Meantime, almost of all of OEMs who ever made diesels are being targeted by what Keith Crain calls “Government that gets mad”. [See More Revelations in the Press below]

Somehow, the VW Diesel story has been fragmented, incomplete, and even indefinite from the beginning. Every agency, press, and regulator seemed to rely on the testing of a group of engineering students and associate professors in of all places at the Arvind Thiruvengadam Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and Emissions at West Virginia University. When one reads the account of the actual portable field testing process that this student team used as described in the Jack Ewing book “Faster, Higher, Farther”, one has to wonder, question, and harbor doubts about the testing results and evidence. Just read Chapter One and you will begin to see how this all came down.

Meantime, the EPA has remained a shadowy figure as if some engineering firm or OEM were about to actually challenge the whole emission testing process, roller testing on dynamometers in their lab and all. Instead, the EPA seemed to take the testing by one lab in a university and maybe some re-enforcement from the California Resources Board and plunge into the VW testing data from a university testing lab as gospel. Just how much participation, feedback, and validation of the results concluded about the detection devices from VW and other OEMs has never been covered or explained, Oliver Schmidt, VW’s sacrificial lamb. is about to go to jail. One person so far and the rest in awaiting more trials or more time to things to die down. While at the same time, VW has paid at least $4.3 B to the U.S. Government alone as part of a reported total of nearly $20 B in fines & owner compensation globally. Many are saying quietly that this whole VW scandal is a grave injustice and should not have happened—that the EPA and U.S. Government actually extorted billions from VW. Some say the Feds did the same thing to Toyota over the accelerated throttle problem and the keys problem at GM. BTW – where do these huge fines go? Who gets the money and what do they do with it? What federal department gets the money and how do we get an accounting of the total amount? And for that matter were all those VW owners who were empowered to make claims of compensation and new replacement vehicles really entitled to what VW was forced to pay and deliver?

The Editorial team at Automotive Information Network has been cautiously skeptical and in doubt about the whole VW episode over the past two years. AIN Media Blogs have suggested that questions were not being answered. Questions that suggested that the EPA testing standards, procedures, and practices may have actually caused the engineering teams at the OEMs to challenge the testing methodology at the EPA.

Meantime, here are 10 unanswered questions that were asked in an AIN Media Blog year ago on June 16th, 2016.

The Blog Title from June 16, 2016 “Waiting for the Next Shoe to Drop--Is Only VW Really to Blame for the Diesel Fiasco or is the Real Scandal Yet to come?”

The Questions still seeking real answers: [Then and now]

1. Is the now infamous VW Scandal really confined to just VW? 2. Is the scandal just about VW or also about the EPA system, the testing and regulatory infrastructure, and the whole automotive industry establishment, particularly the process that was set up to measure the performance and carbon emissions of vehicles? 3. Is it possible, even now, that this whole VW scandal really a not a scandal confined to VW, and somehow is an outright injustice imposed on VW? 4. Could the EPA and the way the National Testing Lab measures emissions somehow have set up the VW situation and therefore in real way are really major part of the problem? 5. Why is there one standard or one emission measurement process or standard in the U.S. and another one in Europe? Do European’s really give a damn about carbon emissions? 6. Why did and has VW acquiesced to the “charges”? 7. Did EPA, CARB, NHTSA and the Press over blow & fully disclose the charges about the actual emission performance of the 11M VW diesels in this country? 8. Were the 40% Emission levels confined to only a fraction of this number? 9. Are more OEMs, thousands of tuners, & collaborative vendors about to be “caught”? 10. Are the really knowledgeable automotive and mechanical engineering teams ok with how this whole thing has turned out? [e.g. SAE, IEEE, Tech Testing labs]

Recent References and Research Sourcing: 1) New York Times Headlines on May 2017, “GM Accused in Lawsuit of VW-like Defeat Devices” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/business/international/vw-dieselemissions-scandal-explained.html 2) Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2016 “BMW Denies Collusion Over Diesel Emissions” 3) Wall Street Journal 26, 2017 “VW Executive Pleads Guilty”

4) Book: Faster, Higher, Farther” by Jack Ewing

AIN Media Blog Authored by Chuck Parker, Publisher Automotive Information Network, Inc www.automotivedigest.com 310 265-2225 [email protected] July 2017