2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 15:44
A key witness burdens the executives in engine development in the VW exhaust scandal. After the manipulations that began in 2006, there was a «vow of silence» in the department.
According to media reports, Volkswagen has made progress in dealing with the emissions scandal. As "Süddeutsche Zeitung", NDR and WDR reported, a key witness who is said to have been involved in the manipulation himself has given extensive testimony in internal surveys in the car company in recent months. The Braunschweig public prosecutor's office is also investigating the key witness. A VW spokesman did not want to comment on the report on Friday evening. A spokesman for the public prosecutor could not be reached.
Manipulation is no secret in the department
The public prosecutor's office is investigating several VW employees on suspicion of fraud. Internal investigations are also ongoing at VW. Volkswagen had announced that it would submit a report on the scandal to the annual general meeting in April. The automaker had manipulated exhaust gas tests on diesel vehicles with the help of software. This plunged the group into a serious crisis.
According to the reports, the evidence suggests that virtually everyone is having the exhaust gas problemsexecutives involved in engine development knew about the manipulation or were even involved in it. In the department concerned, it was no secret that VW was only able to officially comply with the emission limit values for nitrogen oxide in the emissions tests carried out by the authorities in the USA and Europe, it said. Many employees and managers in this department were privy to it. In order to protect themselves, there was a "vow of silence" in the department. Other areas in the group should not have known about it, apart from a few exceptions.
VW's diesel offensive in the USA as a starting point
The manipulation started in November 2006. According to the findings, a larger group of employees in engine development is said to have discussed the use of the fraud software at that time.
As already known, the starting point of the scandal was a strategically large-scale diesel offensive by VW in the USA in 2005 and 2006. At that time, VW had massive sales problems in the USA. VW wanted to outdo the hybrid technology of its arch-rival Toyota with a “clean diesel”. This technique should be clean but not too expensive. But this could only be achieved with the help of the manipulation software.
The VW top had always emphasized that only a small group of employees knew about the manipulations in the engine control, but not the board of directors and the supervisory board. VW had several employees on leave in response to the emissions scandal. (dpa)
