Dusseldorf The diesel scandal hit VW drivers with full force: several million VW-Diesel recalled the Federal Motor Transport Authority three years ago, because the vehicles did not comply with the exhaust emissions in road operation. Eleven million diesel vehicles of the EA type were affected by the exhaust gas scandal worldwide.
Volkswagen said he could solve the crisis with new software and worked feverishly on an update. In the autumn of 2016, the Group presented the Kraftfahrbundesamt (KBA) the new program code for the diesel engines, on November 4, 2016, the authority gave her permission to use. In Germany had about 2.6 million vehicles of the VW group get a mandatory software update.
Thus, the management of the car company considers the problem solved. “Customers have suffered neither loss nor damage,” said Hiltrud Werner, VW’s chief legal and integrity officer in February. “The vehicles are safe and ready to drive.”
Research by the Handelsblatt now show a different picture: The software update, which should clean dirty VW diesel vehicles, the KBA had indeed approved, but apparently not sufficiently tested. Just as the authorities let themselves be fooled by the manufacturer in the original scandal, the emissions values would be respected, the KBA relied on the correction of the problem that this time Volkswagen would do everything right. Now the corporation and the authorities have a scandal after the scandal.
Ludmila Walt is one of the vehicles involved. Walt acquired a VW Caddy in 2012. She had the diesel vehicle rebuilt so that she could drive her disabled son to appointments. According to Volkswagen, reliability is one of the seven core values of the Group. Walt relied on the value proposition of the car maker. Today she wishes she had not done it.
In 2016, Walt learned that her caddy is affected by the diesel scandal. Volkswagen had installed a function in the engine software, which turned off the cleaning of exhaust gases. In 2017 Volkswagen introduced new software to Walt’s Caddy. Since then, says the VW customer, she can hardly use it anymore. Several times her car has remained smoking.
Customers complain about poor engine performance
Sometimes coolant runs out, twice the cylinder head had to be replaced. The car has been in the garage eight times since the software update, and Walt and her son were stuck in their house in Reutlingen. “If the car does not drive, that’s really bad for us,” says the mother. “We can visit in the time no more doctors.” In the imagination of the VW leadership, customers like Ludmila Walt and her son do not appear.
Walt is far from the only one who can barely use their vehicle. Other angry customers complain about worse engine performance, increased fuel consumption and other shortcomings since they got their VW cars out of the workshops. In chat forums like “motor-talk.de” they give vent to their anger.
“Jerking when starting, start-stop automatic hardly jumps on,” complains a VW customer, who calls himself “crimsons”, about his VW Tiguan. Forum member “156pilota” criticizes that his diesel now “approx. 0.5 l on average more “consume.
Federal Environmental Agency is for hardware retrofitting
The Handelsblatt wanted to know from the Kraftfahrtbundesamt why a sufficient test did not take place: Was it tested how the new software affected the individual parts of the vehicle? The Kraftfahrtbundesamt affirmed: “Tests were carried out by technical services appointed by the KBA with and on their own test stands.”
One had to submit their protocols. The KBA did not say who those services were. Neither Volkswagen nor the Kraftfahrtbundesamt can explain what is going on in the customer world of the Wolfsburger Group since the software update is in circulation.
What is behind it? In September, the Federal Environment Agency published an opinion on the emissions behavior of VW vehicles with installed software update. The result: “The measurements on eight vehicles showed that the updates reduce the NOx emissions in real operation by an average of around 25 percent. The emissions after software update are on average 588 mg / km; more than three times the laboratory limit. “
In addition, the update leads to more CO2 emissions and increased consumption. The technical hardware retrofit of Euro 5 diesel cars with SCR catalysts is therefore still absolutely necessary, according to the Federal Office.
The VW leadership still remains in their assessment. Neither did the customers suffer damage from the old software, nor was there anything to stop the renewal. “Of course,” the update has gone through an “extensive hedging program,” the group says.
Volkswagen has ensured the software update “that the released technical solutions do not lead to any detrimental effects on the type-approval-relevant vehicle properties and no negative consequences in terms of the durability of the vehicles”. These results would be available to the Federal Motor Transport Authority.
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