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That time when VW thought its diesels were holier than hybrids

When it comes to its diesel engines, Volkswagen was publicly trying to work the regulation system as far back as 2011. That's when the Obama Administration announced stricter US greenhouse-gas emissions standards for 2025. At the time, VW was saying its diesel engines were as clean or even cleaner than hybrids and some plug-in vehicles, The New York Times says, citing former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officer Margo Oge. VW did indeed boycott Obama's announcement of the 2025 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards four years ago. The reason given at the time was that VW's attempt for its diesel engines to get special consideration and extra credits for fulfilling the emissions mandate was ultimately rejected by the EPA. Oge said VW's US executives were conciliatory but the automaker's German officials were "arrogant" in their belief that diesel technology was far superior, from an emissions standpoint, than hybrids or plug-ins. As we know now, that was not the case. Last month, we learned that VW fitted as many as 11 million vehicles around the world with software that programmed its diesel engines to show artificially low emissions levels during testing. In the ongoing fallout, VW has set aside $7.3 billion to address the scandal and the CEO resigned. New VW CEO Matthias Muller says recalls on the diesels in question may go into effect as soon as January in Europe. Meanwhile, among other indignities, Green Car Journal rescinded Green Car of the Year Awards it had bestowed on the 2009 Jetta TDI and 2010 Audi A3 TDI, while Volkswagen's Stock was delisted from the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. News Source: New York TimesImage Credit: Matt Cardy / Getty Images Government/Legal Green Read This Volkswagen Emissions Diesel Vehicles CAFE standards vw diesel scandal Barack Obama

Berlin demanding costly German recall of 12 million diesel cars

BERLIN - Germany's Transport Ministry is in talks with car manufacturers about updating the engine management software of up to 12 million diesel vehicles, people familiar with the talks told Reuters on Monday. The cost of updating cars could amount to as much as 1.5 billion to 2.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion to $2.8 billion), and the ministry is demanding that vehicles with engines conforming to the euro-4, euro-5 and euro-6 standards be part of the recall, government sources said. The German government has demanded that the auto industry shoulder the costs of the update and is pushing for a solution to be presented before German elections on Sept. 24. The ministry is in talks with German auto industry associations VDA and VDIK as well as representatives from local governments to try and cut nitrogen oxide pollution by about 25 percent, the sources said. The talks come amid growing opposition to diesel in the wake of an emissions cheating scandal at Volkswagen. Several European cities including Stuttgart and Munich have considered banning some diesel vehicles because of emissions of nitrogen oxides, which are blamed for causing respiratory disease. ($1 = 0.8942 euros) Reporting by Markus WacketRelated Video: Government/Legal Green Audi BMW Mercedes-Benz Porsche Volkswagen Emissions Diesel Vehicles dieselgate

Volkswagen Golf Wagon caught completely uncovered

Without a lot of information to go with them, our camera-toting spies have captured some new images of a Volkswagen Golf wagon variant that is almost completely undisguised. In fact, the one piece of camouflage on the tidy wagon would probably have gone unnoticed to most casual viewers. Look closely at the rear three-quarter view of the car and you'll notice that the apparent taillight clusters are actually fakes - the outline of the real units is faintly visible behind the blue bodywork and the sticker-like fake taillights.
It's a good guess then, that this Golf wagon (called a Golf Kombi by our spy photographer) is a prototype that's pretty far along in the development cycle for Volkswagen. We can't be sure what impact this will have on the company's small wagon offering here in the US, but we'd be pretty surprised if something very like this didn't end up as the next Jetta SportWagen. We might well have more information on that front, after we visit Geneva next week.