Volkswagen began cheating on emissions testing in 2008
Posted on Monday, October 5th, 2015
The recent Volkswagen scandal that has rocked the automotive industry is said to have started as early as 2008. Volkswagen recently admitted to installing illegal devices in their “clean diesel” vehicles that could detect when an emissions test was being performed. The devices would then activate and emit at levels that could pass the test, but actual levels of pollutants released by their vehicles were up to 40 times the legal amount.
It is said that these devices started being installed in VW vehicles in 2008 after the company realized that their diesel engines, in which they had invested millions of research dollars, could not meet regulation standards. Rather than continuing research and developing more expensive engines that could pass emission tests, VW installed the illegal devices in up to 11 million of its vehicles worldwide.
It is still unclear which company officials were involved in the scandal, but three top managers have already been suspended in addition to the company’s CEO stepping down. Volkswagen has seen intense backlash, with stock prices falling and a number of consumer suits on the horizon against the German automaker. VW promises to continue intense investigations into the scandal and is expected to release information from an internal inquiry later this week.