Volkswagen
The automaker could face new diesel problems.
(Photo: Bloomberg / Getty Images)
Düsseldorf As moderator Maybrit Illner in her talk show in mid-September on the “cheat software” to speak, jingled Herbert dies several times with his eyes, then he put on a narrow smile. Exhaust gas manipulation on the new VWDiesel engine EA 288? With all his persuasive power, Volkswagen CEO said, “Thank goodness, there’s nothing in the story.”
Of the SWR had previously reported with reference to confidential documents that also in newer VWDiesel engines with Euro 6 emissions standard software is installed. The recognize whether the car is on a test bench: a so-called defeat. But Diess and his press office referred the reporting to the land of fantasy. He had already clarified that in 2015, says Diess. “I was promised high and holy, they are clean.”
Now it seems in Wolfsburg just before Christmas over with the holiness. Last Tuesday the prosecutor Braunschweig moved to search at Volkswagen – Because of possible manipulation of the engine EA 288th The state authority wants to check whether even this drive was tricked. The promise of the VW boss from September does not seem worth much anymore.
In fact, Volkswagen even got the investigators on the track this time. After the outbreak of the 2015 diesel scandal The German automaker had to tighten its internal controls, Because the engine EA 288 now noticed something, the company informed the authorities.
At the same time, Volkswagen warns against premature conclusions. It is not that their own engineers have discovered a new fraud in diesel engines. Rather, one has found a technical fact about which one could discuss. Therefore, Volkswagen has disclosed it to the competent investigative and regulatory authorities themselves.
It’s about software that controls engines. According to Volkswagen, the system detects a performance drop in a pollutant filter under certain circumstances, but does not immediately sound an alarm. That’s something else, says Volkswagen, as about the engine model EA 189th
There, the engine software had been specially programmed so that the car could drive dirtier than allowed. This is not the case for the EA 288, For Volkswagen is therefore the allegation of Diess, the EA 288 is clean, continue to be correct.
Four million cars with a suspicious engine
That the prosecutor Braunschweig the corporation searched for this reference anyway, is not good news for Volkswagen. The EA 288 engine is one of the Group’s most important engines, the successor to the infamous EA 189, which used to manipulate 11 million cars. The scandal cost the group more than 30 billion euros, still arguing with Volkswagen customers and authorities on the complete work-up.
The EA 288 is installed in more than four million vehicles, including bestsellers such as Golf, Touran, Tiguan, and models of VW subsidiaries Audi and Skoda drive around with it. More are sold every day. The recent raid raises the question of whether the EA 288 is not only a successor of the scandal engine EA 189, but also a continuation of the scandal.
The authorities are suspicious. In the ongoing investigation came several suspicions that was also tricked in the EA 288th For example, the prosecution’s documents contain indications that the EA 288 actually has a defeat device – and that it could have been used.
Statements heard by interrogated engineers sound treacherous: “The accused E. explains that the function was used in the EA 288 in the field of exhaust aftertreatment,” it says in a report by the State Office for the investigation of Lower Saxony. Previously, another defendant had apparently stated “that AdBlue dosage was also a way to distinguish between role and street via an appropriate on-line dosage.”
Adblue, role and road – these are keywords in the diesel scandal. For the newer engines with SCR catalyst, such as the 3-liter variants of VW, Audi and Porsche, the toxic nitrogen oxides are neutralized from the diesel by injecting the Adblue urea-water mixture.
But that’s not exactly what happened with these big engines – because the existing Adblue tanks were much too small. On the one hand, Volkswagen did not want to allow enough space for sufficiently large tanks, but on the other hand, it did not mean that customers frequently refueled the urea mixture because they could understand this as an inconvenience.
So Adblue was software injected only on the test bench, the so-called role, in sufficient measure, but not in road operation. Such software is inadmissible. The Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt therefore has hundreds of thousands of vehicles from VW, Audi and Porsche recalled.
Diagnostic systems detect a failure – but do not warn
The EA 288 was spared by recalls so far. A VW spokesman said on Tuesday, when investigations of the engine was a failure of the diesel particulate filter has been simulated. It has been found that the diagnostic system of the vehicles, the so-called on-board diagnosis (OBD), the driver does not warn.
For the first-generation EA-288 engines, “in the very rare case where the SCR catalytic converter should fail completely due to a malfunction, the driver may not be properly informed via a warning lamp”. However, this happens almost never in the more than four million vehicles sold. The emission limits would be respected.
Incidentally, it is not determined against the company itself, according to the spokesman, but against individuals “far below the board”. Volkswagen cooperates with the prosecutor, although their legal opinion is considered unfounded.
So was the prosecutor’s office raided for a mere, rare malfunction? The investigators’ files contain extensive statements by witnesses and accused persons that make it unlikely. Rather, they provide information that a shutdown device was also installed in the EA 288. However, some of the interviewees had also emphasized that this had never been used. “The EA 288 has the same software in it” as the EA 189, such as the accused K., “only the function is not activated.”
Against this background may also explain a message from Diess, which he already put at Maybrit Illner. “Test bench recognition per se you always need,” said the VW boss. The crucial question is: “Do you use this test bench recognition to achieve different emission levels while driving?” This is certainly not the case with the EA 288, “Diess asserted. The engine in question had been tested by the Federal Motor Transport Authority. “The engine has no shutdown device.”
Even today, Volkswagen relies on the fact that the Federal Motor Transport Authority has found no shutdown on the EA 288. On the contrary, the results showed that the emission behavior of the EA 288 on the test bench and on the road is extremely good, “said a VW spokesman.
More headwind from the courts
This contradicts the report of the LKA Lower Saxony and the statements reproduced there. Accused apparently described the use of a “switching function” in the EA 288th The accused D., said the LKA, had stated that the Adblue dosing strategy in the SCR catalyst is clearly linked to the role recognition and aims at maximum impact and low emissions.
On the street, this strategy is different. There the AdBlue injection would be reduced “so that a certain maintenance interval would be done”. This statement is apparently supported by two other defendants.
The accused P. also stated in his interrogation that the EA 288 “on the roll” had been driven longer in nitrogen oxide-poor normal operation “than the customer would drive on the road”.
Given this, the investigators seem to ask the question of why Volkswagen should have installed a defeat device, if they were not used. The accused could not make this clear to the interrogating officer.
For VW, the investigation is still problematic for another reason. Because the EA 288 is now also the subject of the dispute before the civil courts, where diesel customers want to reverse their vehicle purchase. The courts could use the investigation as an opportunity to deal more relentlessly with Volkswagen.
Already, some seem to no longer believe the assurances of the car manufacturer that in the EA 288 no defeat device stuck. This is proven by some recent decisions.
Engine under suspicion
VW TDI engine EA288: The automaker is suspected of having manipulated this engine.
(Photo: VW)
Meanwhile, the complaints of VW customers who bought models with the engine EA 288 increase. Consumer advocates report initial successes. “In the current year, several civil courts have the EA 288 to the test case declared and ordered the obtaining of expert opinions,” said the Berlin lawyer Johannes von male.
For example, the Lübeck district court recently issued a ruling on evidence. The court wants to have clarified by an expert, if the engine reduces the exhaust aftertreatment when it reaches a certain speed or suspends. The result would probably be higher exhaust emissions on the road.
Volkswagen draws in disputes about the EA 288 apparently also back again and again. This is demonstrated by two procedures for the new diesel engine at the Higher Regional Court of Cologne, led by the law firm Rogert & Ulbrich. The Higher Regional Court had tended in a referral decision on the side of the plaintiff. However, there was no judgment.
Whether it was because the plaintiff of Volkswagen got a lucrative offer is not known. In any case, the Wolfsburg car maker was spared a first verdict because of the EA 288 before a high court.
Whether it comes to a similar wave as with the EA 189, should the allegations of the public prosecutor confirm, is not foreseeable. Alone in Germany more than 200,000 buyers of these cars complain, and nearly half a million of potentially damaged customers have joined the pattern-finding suit. The EA 288 could be the next big topic of controversy.
In its decision, the Higher Regional Court in Cologne formulated clearly how it assesses the current attitude of VW. “As far as (…) continues to be pointed out by the defendant simply that the stored travel curve has no influence on the emissions and (…) is no longer used, this remains a simple (…) statement.”
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