DefeatDevice
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NYT finds smoking gun in the hands of Volkswagen's former CEO
Volkswagen's former CEO has always said that he knew nothing about his company's emissions-cheating policy. His default line is that he learned about the scandal just days before the firm publicly admitted its guilt. Unfortunately for Martin Winterkorn (pictured), internal memos suggest that his memory might be a little faulty. The New York Times is claiming to have seen these documents, kindly supplied by German newspaper Bild. If accurate, the paperwork says that Winterkorn may have known about the conspiracy up to sixteen months before it was revealed to the public. One document, dated May 2014, is an explicit warning to him that regulators might have found the offending defeat device. So, uh, hey, Martin -- you still sure you didn't know anything about this until September 2015?
Volkswagen had 'several' emissions cheating devices
Those suspicions that Volkswagen cooked up more than one defeat device to cheat on emissions tests? They may be well-founded. Reuters tipsters claim that the car maker produced "several versions" of the gadget to suit different diesel engines. VW isn't confirming anything (it's still in the midst of an internal investigation), although it makes sense. The company has had different variants of TDI engines over the years, and different regional emissions standards would have required at least modified software.
Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn resigns amid emissions scandal
Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn announced his resignation on Wednesday, following a tumultuous week for the company. On September 18th, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Volkswagen to recall 500,000 of its diesel passenger cars because they included software that hid the vehicles' true emissions output from regulators. "I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group," Winterkorn said in a statement obtained by CNBC. Winterkorn denied any wrongdoing on his own part, but he accepted "responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines."
