Because smog tests are nearly always done on dynamometers, VW got away with the scheme for seven years, until the “clean transportation” advocates went to WVU, which tests emissions using equipment that fits in vehicle trunks.
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But they weren’t, and the £30k study managed to do what legislators should have been doing – checking the real world emissions – and in the process bring VW nearly to its knees, and shine a very unpleasant light on the motor industry. Engineer Daniel Carder and a small research team at the University of Washington tested VW emissions during a $50,000 study in the winter of 2012 and spring of 2013.
In October 1998, the WVU Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions discovered that more than 1.1 million trucks whose heavy-duty diesel engines had passed emission inspections at the factory were polluting much more than allowed because of devices created to overcome emissions controls, Dan Carder, interim director of the unit, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
When they tested a Volkswagen Jetta and Passat the findings, they were shocked. They executed some tests around Los Angeles and up the West Coast to Seattle to confirm their own research results.
Carder had started his research one and a half year ago and on stating the facts on public platform, they were interrogated by the Volkswagen.
In the movie version of this story, this is the scene where a bigwig from VW calls the Fatherland and snorts into the phone something about “das hillbillies from Vest Virginia!” and everyone roars with laughter and merrily heads to the nearest bauhaus for a round of pilsner.
Until this week, when the real-life EPA and CARB detonated a megaton-sized regulatory finding on Volkswagen. Carder’s experience in particular-they probably wouldn’t have been so dismissive of the data generated by the team from Morgantown.
Carder and his team initially though their testing was faulty because the results of their road tests were so out of whack with EPA standards.
The iconic vehicle maker now faces monumental drop in stock prices and sales as well as more than $83 million in penalties.
Carder’s team comprises of two graduate students, a research professor, a faculty member and himself.
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And das ist die ende of der story.
