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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.

Audi traffic light recognition could save 240 million gallons of fuel [UPDATE]

Any hypermiler will tell you that the way you drive your car has a huge impact on how much energy it uses. But these greenfoot drivers haven't had a car that's smart enough to tell them about the inner lives of traffic lights. That's what a prototype system in an Audi A6 Saloon that the German automaker recently tested in Las Vegas can do. Since the car can communicate with local traffic signals and is able to predict when lights will change, the car can help reduce CO2 emissions by up to 15 percent. Further, Audi says that the system could save some 238 million gallons of fuel (900 million liters), if deployed across Germany. We can only imagine what hypermilers could do with this. We got to drive the Audi Online traffic light information system prototype in January, but we focused more on how the system worked rather than the green aspect. Now that Audi has had a bit more time to crunch the numbers, it has released fuel economy information for the connected car. The key points for the eco-side of things are that the driver is told in the dashboard how fast/slow to go to hit the next green light. This can help prevent unnecessary speeding and or encourage drivers to go a bit faster in order to hit the green, thus preventing idling and wasted time. The system is too smart to let you idle for long. Except that Audi Online is too smart to let you idle for long. The Audi connect system can calculate how much longer the light will be red and can access the car's start-stop capabilities and will fire up the engine "five seconds before the green phase." That seems like an awful long time in a world where competitors have figured out ways to restart an engine in 0.35 seconds. We've asked Audi for an explanation on why this buffer is so lengthy, and will let you know what the reasoning is when we hear back. Despite the trials in the A6, Audi says the Audi Online traffic system could be integrated into any Audi model, "subject to the necessary government legislation." Aside from the Sin City tests, Audi is running trials of the connected car in Verona, Italy and Berlin, Germany. If you'd like to test it out yourself some day, take heart from this line in the press release, available below: "A market launch is currently the subject of intense analysis in the United States." *UPDATE: Audi's Mark Dahncke told AutoblogGreen that the five second window is meant, "To alert the driver that the light is about to turn green.

Researchers halfway to cutting carbon fiber costs by 90%

Carbon fiber has been utilized for decades to build racecars, as a means to cut weight while maintaining strength. But until recently, the space-age material has been largely absent from the street on anything but supercars because of the expense to use it. Recently, BMW signaled a major shift in that trend when it starting using carbon fiber reinforced plastic panels on the i3 and i8. This relatively small scale start might be just the beginning; the German company believes that a breakthrough to inexpensively manufacture the lightweight stuff is just on the horizon.
MAI Carbon Cluster Management GmbH counts BMW, Audi, Airbus, the German government and many other organizations as supporters, and it's researching how to make carbon fiber cheaper to produce, according to Automotive News Europe. The company thinks it can reduce costs by 90 percent in the near future. "We've certainly reached a halfway point on our cost-cutting target for suitable carbon-fiber parts," said project head Klaus Drechsler to Automotive News Europe.
Unfortunately, it isn't entirely clear just what MAI Carbon is doing to make such a huge leap possible. However, a recent post on the company's website talks about a new form a carbon fiber using a thermoplastic matrix that could be cured in less than three minutes. That's compared to about 90 minutes in the traditional process with an autoclave.