Rare 1987 Volkswagon Vanagon Gl Westfalia Manual Full Camper White on 2040-cars

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VW orders external probe into diesel emission scandal

There are well over 480,000 Volkswagen-made, diesel-powered vehicles currently traveling roads in the United States that do not meet the Environmental Protection Agency's emissions requirements. This, as you can probably imagine, is a very big deal, and has led VW CEO Professor Doctor Martin Winterkorn to release an official statement on the matter. "I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public," he said. It's important to note that these vehicles run software with a so-called "defeat device" that kicks in when the on-board computer senses that it is being tested for emissions. When the car is operating normally – in other words, when its exhaust isn't being sniffed – the cars do not meet US emissions standards. According to the EPA and the California Air Resources Board, affected cars emit as much as 40 times the allowable level of certain pollutants. "We will cooperate fully with the responsible agencies, with transparency and urgency, to clearly, openly, and completely establish all of the facts of this case," according to Winterkorn, who added, "Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation of this matter." It's not yet known who will carry out this investigation. At present, there are still a number of 2015 Volkswagen models on dealer lots that do not meet emissions requirements. VW has issued a stop sale on vehicles equipped with the 2.0-liter TDI diesel engine. What's more, the German automaker has been barred from selling 2016 model-year vehicles that use this engine, according to The Detroit News. Last year, diesel vehicles made up about 22 percent of all VW sales, which means these restrictions will have a big impact on the brand's sales performance until a remedy is found and the vehicles are approved for sale. Interestingly, the EPA has started a campaign of sorts to test vehicles from other automakers that sell diesel-powered vehicles in the United States to make sure they comply with emissions requirements under all operating circumstances. The EPA says it "will be reviewing [its] compliance protocols and introducing ways in which [it] can effectively test not only for emissions performance but also for the potential presence of defeat devices," according to a statement provided to The Detroit News. Check out the full statement from VW CEO Martin Winterkorn below. Related Video: STATEMENT OF PROF. DR.

VW decides against active-cooling system for e-Golf lithium battery

When the 2015 VW e-Golf was introduced at the LA Auto Show last year, VW said it would come with a water-cooled battery. During the Detroit Auto Show, when the car was trotted out again, VW released a new press release that stripped out the "water-cooled" language, but this change went unnoticed. During a recent VW event in Germany, a friend from Green Car Reports realized that the battery on display did not seem to have any water-cooling mechanisms. That set us off on a bit of a sleuthing and we have now learned that VW is not going to include any active cooling in the upcoming e-Golf. In fact, the company is entirely confident that this car - because of what it's designed to do - doesn't need it. "The need for a cooling system wasn't there" - VW's Darryll Harrison VW has been working on an electrified Golf for ages now, and so changes to the plan are to be expected. But battery cooling is vitally important not just to keep the car operating properly but because when things get too hot, there can be serious public relations problems. Nissan began testing a new battery chemistry for the Leaf in 2013 after an uproar from warm-weather EV drivers in Arizona who were experiencing worse-than-expected battery performance. The Leaf has always used an air-cooled battery, which is another way to say that there is no active cooling system (more details here). Tesla CEO Elon Musk once said this approach is "primitive." So, why is VW following the same path? We asked Darryll Harrison, VW US's manager of brand public relations west, for more information, and he told AutoblogGreen that VW engineers discovered through a lot of testing of the Golf Mk6 EV prototypes, that battery performance was not impacted by temperatures when using the right battery chemistry. That chemistry, it turns out, is lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) in cells from Panasonic. These cells had "the lowest self-warming tendency and the lowest memory effect of all cells tested," Harrison said. He added that VW engineers tested the NMC cells in places like Death Valley and Arizona and found they didn't warm very quickly either through operation, charging (including during fast charging) or through high ambient temps. "The need for a cooling system wasn't there," Harrison said.

Volkswagen NMC production guise caught in China

Chinese car site Autohome has what are said to be the first pictures of the Volkswagen New Midsize Coupe concept in production form. VW's NMC was just introduced at the Beijing Motor Show, while background chatter indicated it would go on sale in China, Autohome says that production version will be built at the Shanghai-Volkswagen plant in Ningbo, and the retail guise could be introduced at the Guangzhou Motor Show in November and go on sale that same month.
Assuming this is the production car, its main lines have made the jump from the concept but with less fine detailing, a silver hue and with conventional VW wheels it's lost a little bit of oomph. Still, a few checkmarks on the option sheet can fix most of that, the shape remains handsome and the 2.0-liter turbo underhood keeps performance peppy and mileage frugal enough. You can head to Autohome for a couple more photos of a sedan we'd be happy to make room for over here.