Volkswagen Tries To Limit Emissions Scandal To 10 To 20 Individuals

Personally, I don't believe it was just "10 or 20" people who knew about the shady emissions angle. Does VW work in such fragmented, segregated, and isolated "Silos Of Specialty" that this is even possible? For VW's "Evil 20" scenario to work, we'd need the following:

(1) Team working on basic engine design has no knowledge of emissions history, or they believe someone else magically made them "clean"

(2) Team working on meeting fuel economy, power, and other performance targets is not involved with emissions at all. Somehow, no matter what revisions you make, emissions are okay.

(3) Correspondence from Bosch, the manufacturer of the "cheat device" boxes, in which they warned VW that the devices are illegal, happened exclusively with VW insiders who were The Evil 20.

(4) When other car manufacturers and car reviewers at large were stymied by how VW could make such clean engines without using Diesel Exhaust Fluid and related hardware, nobody in VW became suspicious, or The Evil 20 were able to fool everyone who was.

(5) No real-world emissions tests were conducted at VW. Either that, or they were handled exclusively by the Evil 20 who falsified records.

(6) VW's Evil 20 were successful at keeping their dealings a secret to all other VW employees. This is remarkable, considering how many scandals outside of VW are uncovered regularly by insider whistleblowers or suspicious outsiders.


I believe it's much more likely that VW has a corporate culture of fear, in which people know to "keep your nose clean" and not ask questions, so when someone notices something that's amiss, like emissions number that look wonky, or a diesel engine without pollution hardware that allegedly runs "clean", they turned a blind eye and kept quiet about it. If this is so, then the numbers are *well* beyond the stated 10-20. And remember, VW initially asserted to US Congress that it was "two engineers" who were to blame. Congress was rightfully incredulous.

This was systemic and pervasive. Everyone knew.

Regardless of US vs German laws etc. VW is toast in the USA.

Try again! When the discovery process on all the law suits commences this number will rise dramatically...maybe ten fold and further damage to the brand for lack of transparency will occur.

You are forgetting that VW is a German company - and those engines were made in Germany. Discovery process in the usa will not lead to much since most of these cars are simply imported and sold by a US sales company owned by them.So the question will be if the US import wing knew of the software - otherwise - all they did was sell noconforming cars - supplied to them without their knowledge.

The real process will happen in Germany - and with the government as the companies largest stockholder - don't expect everything you might think you would get here.

You are forgetting that VW is a German company - and those engines were made in Germany. Discovery process in the usa will not lead to much since most of these cars are simply imported and sold by a US sales company owned by them.So the question will be if the US import wing knew of the software - otherwise - all they did was sell noconforming cars - supplied to them without their knowledge.

The real process will happen in Germany - and with the government as the companies largest stockholder - don't expect everything you might think you would get here.

10 to 20..
pigs may fly..