To date, Volkswagen has bought back about 350,000 diesel vehicles in the wake of the massive environmental fraud they committed around emissions testing. Here’s one of 37 VW graveyards.
BBC explained the sophisticated kit used to perpetrate the fraud back when the scandal broke:
Full details of how it worked are sketchy, although the EPA has said that the engines had computer software that could sense test scenarios by monitoring speed, engine operation, air pressure and even the position of the steering wheel.
When the cars were operating under controlled laboratory conditions – which typically involve putting them on a stationary test rig – the device appears to have put the vehicle into a sort of safety mode in which the engine ran below normal power and performance. Once on the road, the engines switched out of this test mode.
The result? The engines emitted nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times above what is allowed in the US.
Now that Trump plans to roll back emissions, expect these mephistic babies to be back on the road in no time!
• Volkswagen’s car ‘graveyard’ in California (YouTube / BBC News)