The company faced a challenge: In 2008, all diesel-powered cars sold in the U.S. had to meet to significantly stricter emissions standards that were a part of so-called “Tier 2” regulations. The EPA was looking to rid diesel of its sooty, noxious ways.
The company creatively wrote software that would recognize when the car was undergoing an emissions test, a potentially complex algorithm that might incorporate everything from differences in front and rear wheel speeds to variations in steering inputs and even barometric pressure when the car is being tested by the EPA and changes its performance to meet emissions standards.
The rest of the time, the cars produce up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides (NOx)
To reduce NOx emissions, there are two main approaches. One is selective catalytic reduction, or SCR, which involves injecting urea into the exhaust stream to react with NOx and turn it into harmless nitrogen and oxygen. The approach is incredibly effective, but it requires an additional tank to store the urea, a heater to keep it fluid, a pump, a valve, a mixer, and a catalyst to speed the reaction. Despite that, most automakers ended up settling on SCR, in part because it worked so well.
Side note, to reduce air pollution, they create plastic garbage with all the containers of urea fluid
But on smaller cars like the Volkswagen Golf and Jetta, SCR is less than ideal. There’s not a lot of room to put the urea tank, pump, and other equipment, and price-conscious consumers may balk at the added expense, which costs the manufacturer about $50 more for a 2.0-liter engine than the alternative, according to a study by ICCT. That equates to a cost savings of over $500 million over 11 million cars.
Volkswagen engineers were hard at work on the alternative based on Toyota research from the mid-1990s, a NOx storage catalytic converter (LNT). LNT uses a catalyst to absorb and store NOx so it doesn’t escape into the atmosphere. When the catalytic converter is full, the system burns off the stored NOx by pumping an extra burst of fuel into the cylinders, most of which passes through to the converter where it burns the NOx into harmless nitrogen and oxygen.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/tech/volkswagen-diesel-emissions/
In 2008, the 2009 Jetta TDI was named Green Car of the Year by the Green Car Journal. This year, Cars.com named the 2015 Passat TDI its “Eco-friendly Car of the Year.” These cars were green for the budget, green for the environment.
Once the sting of the lie fades, the US customers who bought 482,000 of those cars will feel the real pain. Because Volkswagen will be forced to recall those vehicles and somehow make them to meet federal standards. There are two apparent ways to do that, and owners who value performance, fuel economy, and trunk space won’t like either.
One is to “reflash” the engine control module, recalibrating the software so the car always runs the way it does during EPA testing, and always meets emission standards.
The downside here is that to achieve the drastic drop in NOx emissions, the cars in test mode sacrificed some fuel economy, or performance. Just how much is hard to say, but any drop in torque—one great thing about diesels is how they accelerate off the line—will not make drivers happy. And a drop in mileage would likely cost VW, since hundreds of thousands of drivers would have to spend more on fuel than VW promised at the time of sale.
http://www.wired.com/2015/09/vw-owners-arent-going-like-fixes-diesels/
Volkswagen’s snowballing diesel emissions scandal is a nightmare on virtually every level. For the company, lawsuits will follow, heads will roll, and billions of dollars will be paid in fines and damages. (As of this writing, Volkswagen had already earmarked €6.5 billion to deal with the fallout
This is what VW had been claiming
http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/22/9373351/volkswagens-7-3-billion-diesel-deception-is-a-blessing-in-disguise
And those tax credits for being "Advanced Lean Burn Technology" ? That $1300 is a thing of the past.
" The 2009 Volkswagen that’s manufactured and sold in the US as the Volkswagen Jetta 2.0 Liter Sedan and the Volkswagen Jetta 2.0 Liter Sportwagen, qualifies for a tax credit of up to $1,300. "
"The EPA fuel economy estimates for the Jetta TDI are 29 mpg city driving and 40 mpg highway driving. However in real world conditions, the vehicle performs even better. It’s been known to achieve 38 mpg city driving and 44 mpg highway driving."
http://www.carsdirect.com/car-pricing/how-to-get-a-volkswagen-tax-credit http://www.irs.gov/uac/Alternative-Motor-Vehicle-Credit-1
and the USA government paid out as much as $51 million in green car subsidies for Volkswagen diesel vehicles based on falsified pollution test results, according to a Times analysis of the federal incentives which correlated Internal Revenue Service data with Volkswagen sales figures to determine the value of subsidies VW diesel buyers were eligible to collect in 2009, the first and only year the vehicles qualified. The $1,300 tax credit would have been available to buyers of about 39,500 Jetta and Jetta Sportwagens.
The Justice Department has lately taken on a leading role in major investigations of automakers, usually leveraging the threat of criminal charges to exact huge fines.
How much is this going to cost VW?
Last week, General Motors agreed to pay a $900-million fine for thier delayed recall of defective ignition switch that has led to crashes causing 124 deaths.
Last year Toyota signed a $1.2-billion settlement and admitted to deceiving regulators about deadly safety defects that allegedly caused unintended sudden-acceleration incidents.
This was the second time Volkswagen has been charged with using devices to evade U.S. emission-control rules.
In 1974, the automaker paid a $120,000 fine to settle EPA charges that it gamed pollution control systems in four models by changing carburetor settings and shutting off an emissions-control system at low temperatures. VW didn't admit guilt but pledged management changes to ensure future compliance with EPA regulations.
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-vw-subsidies-20150922-story.html
My recommendation? Buy a junkyard part to replace your cars computer, and install it before they do a reflash of the software, after they do, put the original back in and you keep the performance and gas mileage you bought it for
The company creatively wrote software that would recognize when the car was undergoing an emissions test, a potentially complex algorithm that might incorporate everything from differences in front and rear wheel speeds to variations in steering inputs and even barometric pressure when the car is being tested by the EPA and changes its performance to meet emissions standards.
The rest of the time, the cars produce up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides (NOx)
To reduce NOx emissions, there are two main approaches. One is selective catalytic reduction, or SCR, which involves injecting urea into the exhaust stream to react with NOx and turn it into harmless nitrogen and oxygen. The approach is incredibly effective, but it requires an additional tank to store the urea, a heater to keep it fluid, a pump, a valve, a mixer, and a catalyst to speed the reaction. Despite that, most automakers ended up settling on SCR, in part because it worked so well.
Side note, to reduce air pollution, they create plastic garbage with all the containers of urea fluid
But on smaller cars like the Volkswagen Golf and Jetta, SCR is less than ideal. There’s not a lot of room to put the urea tank, pump, and other equipment, and price-conscious consumers may balk at the added expense, which costs the manufacturer about $50 more for a 2.0-liter engine than the alternative, according to a study by ICCT. That equates to a cost savings of over $500 million over 11 million cars.
Volkswagen engineers were hard at work on the alternative based on Toyota research from the mid-1990s, a NOx storage catalytic converter (LNT). LNT uses a catalyst to absorb and store NOx so it doesn’t escape into the atmosphere. When the catalytic converter is full, the system burns off the stored NOx by pumping an extra burst of fuel into the cylinders, most of which passes through to the converter where it burns the NOx into harmless nitrogen and oxygen.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/tech/volkswagen-diesel-emissions/
In 2008, the 2009 Jetta TDI was named Green Car of the Year by the Green Car Journal. This year, Cars.com named the 2015 Passat TDI its “Eco-friendly Car of the Year.” These cars were green for the budget, green for the environment.
Once the sting of the lie fades, the US customers who bought 482,000 of those cars will feel the real pain. Because Volkswagen will be forced to recall those vehicles and somehow make them to meet federal standards. There are two apparent ways to do that, and owners who value performance, fuel economy, and trunk space won’t like either.
One is to “reflash” the engine control module, recalibrating the software so the car always runs the way it does during EPA testing, and always meets emission standards.
The downside here is that to achieve the drastic drop in NOx emissions, the cars in test mode sacrificed some fuel economy, or performance. Just how much is hard to say, but any drop in torque—one great thing about diesels is how they accelerate off the line—will not make drivers happy. And a drop in mileage would likely cost VW, since hundreds of thousands of drivers would have to spend more on fuel than VW promised at the time of sale.
http://www.wired.com/2015/09/vw-owners-arent-going-like-fixes-diesels/
Volkswagen’s snowballing diesel emissions scandal is a nightmare on virtually every level. For the company, lawsuits will follow, heads will roll, and billions of dollars will be paid in fines and damages. (As of this writing, Volkswagen had already earmarked €6.5 billion to deal with the fallout
This is what VW had been claiming
http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/22/9373351/volkswagens-7-3-billion-diesel-deception-is-a-blessing-in-disguise
And those tax credits for being "Advanced Lean Burn Technology" ? That $1300 is a thing of the past.
" The 2009 Volkswagen that’s manufactured and sold in the US as the Volkswagen Jetta 2.0 Liter Sedan and the Volkswagen Jetta 2.0 Liter Sportwagen, qualifies for a tax credit of up to $1,300. "
"The EPA fuel economy estimates for the Jetta TDI are 29 mpg city driving and 40 mpg highway driving. However in real world conditions, the vehicle performs even better. It’s been known to achieve 38 mpg city driving and 44 mpg highway driving."
http://www.carsdirect.com/car-pricing/how-to-get-a-volkswagen-tax-credit http://www.irs.gov/uac/Alternative-Motor-Vehicle-Credit-1
and the USA government paid out as much as $51 million in green car subsidies for Volkswagen diesel vehicles based on falsified pollution test results, according to a Times analysis of the federal incentives which correlated Internal Revenue Service data with Volkswagen sales figures to determine the value of subsidies VW diesel buyers were eligible to collect in 2009, the first and only year the vehicles qualified. The $1,300 tax credit would have been available to buyers of about 39,500 Jetta and Jetta Sportwagens.
The Justice Department has lately taken on a leading role in major investigations of automakers, usually leveraging the threat of criminal charges to exact huge fines.
How much is this going to cost VW?
Last week, General Motors agreed to pay a $900-million fine for thier delayed recall of defective ignition switch that has led to crashes causing 124 deaths.
Last year Toyota signed a $1.2-billion settlement and admitted to deceiving regulators about deadly safety defects that allegedly caused unintended sudden-acceleration incidents.
This was the second time Volkswagen has been charged with using devices to evade U.S. emission-control rules.
In 1974, the automaker paid a $120,000 fine to settle EPA charges that it gamed pollution control systems in four models by changing carburetor settings and shutting off an emissions-control system at low temperatures. VW didn't admit guilt but pledged management changes to ensure future compliance with EPA regulations.
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-vw-subsidies-20150922-story.html
My recommendation? Buy a junkyard part to replace your cars computer, and install it before they do a reflash of the software, after they do, put the original back in and you keep the performance and gas mileage you bought it for
I pity all the people that bought these cars and now can't get them inspected as the will not pass state air quality tests. If I had the bad fortune to own on I would be mad as hell. I had always assumed the European standards were tougher than the ones here in the U.S.A.
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