James Liang, a Volkswagen engineer who along with his team helped develop a diesel engine for the German automaker, has pleaded guilty in the United States emission standards scandal.
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A longtime Volkswagen engineer has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges as part of a deal with prosecutors.
A Justice Department official says Liang will cooperate in the ongoing investigation. Liang worked in Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg, Germany, headquarters in diesel engine development. He was part of the team that developed the EA 189 2.0-liter diesel TDI engine used in several VW models included in the investigation.
According to the indictment, Liang and his co-conspirators were tasked with designing new diesel engines for the US market that complied with stricter emissions standards for nitrogen oxide emissions that went into effect in 2007. Liang admitted that during some of these meetings, which he personally attended, his co-conspirators misrepresented that VW diesel vehicles complied with US emissions standards and hid the existence of the defeat device from USA regulators.
James Liang, 62, agreed to cooperate with USA prosecutors developing a criminal case against Volkswagen, after he was indicted in Detroit federal court for his role developing the emissions “defeat devices” equipped on more than a half-million cars sold in the United States.
“I knew that Volkswagen did not disclose the defeat device to USA regulators”, Liang said in court.
“Liang moved to the U.S.in 2008 to help launch VW’s so-called “clean diesel” vehicles”.
In some cases, the affected vehicles emitted nitrogen oxide levels up to 40 times the legal limit, regulators have said. “Liang worked with his co-conspirators to enhance the defeat device to allow the vehicle to more easily recognize when the vehicle was no longer in testing mode”, the plea agreement states.
Liang admitted to attending meetings between personnel from VW AG and its US operation and officials from the EPA and California’s Air Resources Board for certifications from the regulators to sell the diesels in the USA market, the Justice Department said. The scandal only affects Volkswagen cars with diesel engines. The judge noted that he is not a US citizen and could be subject to immigration action.
Liang moved to the United States in 2008 to help launch the new “clean diesel” engine in the USA market and was VW’s “Leader of Diesel Compliance” while working at the company’s testing facility in Oxnard, Calif., west of Los Angeles, prosecutors said.
Although the company has been working on a repair for the vehicles for months, it appears that VW may not be able to fix the cars and will have to buy them all back, according to the documents.
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The scheme began to unravel in 2014 when a nonprofit group discovered that the cars polluted too much in real-world driving conditions. The emails said that if Gen 1 was tested by the California Air Resources Board “then we’ll have nothing more to laugh about!”
