The finding that sparked the Dieselgate scandal was the work of three college students. Marc Besch (right) is from Switzerland, while Arvind Thiruvengadam (left) and Hemanth Kappanna (center) are both from India.
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Who was informed of the Volkswagen scandal?
Dieselgate, a scandal involving the Volkswagen Auto Group, caused dominoes to fall across the whole industry when it was revealed that the Volkswagen Auto Group had fabricated its diesel emissions. Regulators launched investigations into numerous businesses throughout the world, many of which were later found to have installed similar “defeat devices” in their diesel vehicles; but, Volkswagen’s emissions-cheating scheme continued to be the most widespread. The scandal ultimately cost Volkswagen and its affiliates many billions of dollars and damaged the standing of a once-reputable carmaker.
And none of it would have been possible without the labor of an engineer by the name of Hemanth Kappanna, who, according to the New York Times, was fired from General Motors earlier this year.
A study conducted in 2013 by Kappanna and other graduate students at West Virginia University revealed diesel Volkswagens polluted more than claimed in actual driving situations. At a conference where members of CARB and the EPA were present in 2014, they presented their findings. Kappanna entered the field at the end of 2014 while investigations grew into the scandal whose outcomes are known today, working for GM in a position that would place him in command of emissions controls.
But Kappanna’s employment wasn’t guaranteed. When GM decided that automatic driving and electric cars were the future of transportation, it became clear that it would require money to make these new technologies a reality. This money could be easily raised by streamlining GM’s operations. The answer is to discontinue unprofitable models, shut down aging plants, and lay off thousands of employees. One of them was named Kappanna.
The now-41-year-old Kappanna told NYT, “They let me go.” Kappanna struggled to find work during his two months of paid time off because the automobile business is predicted to slow down in the next years. When the clock ran out, all Kappanna had left was a ticket back to India. He hypothesizes that a perceived bias in favor of regulators may have played a role in his job loss.
“They might have perceived me as biased, for sure. I honestly can’t say “Kappanna said. The action was criticized by Kappanna’s coworkers as “one of those stupid decisions taken to match the statistics,” even though GM has disputed that Kappanna’s removal was related to his history of disclosing Dieselgate.
Kappanna recalled his coworkers saying that the leadership’s actions were “absolutely incorrect.”
What led to the discovery of the Volkswagen scandal?
West Virginia University researchers conducted the on-road testing in May 2014 that prompted the California Air Resources Board to look into Volkswagen. Two Volkswagen cars with the 2-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder diesel engine were subjected to emissions testing. When tested on the road, the researchers discovered that some cars produce over 40 times the legal amount of nitrogen oxides.
Arvind Thiruvengadam, West Virginia University’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and Emissions
Who exposed Volkswagen’s deception?
Hemanth Kappanna, a 41-year-old Indian-born engineer employed by General Motors, was recently relieved of his responsibility for liaising with the EPA on the American automaker’s emissions technology. He was only one of about 4,000 GM employees that the business let go as part of a “strategic transition,” as it put it.
He wasn’t just any firm asset, though. Looking into Kappanna’s past reveals that he was a genuine hero who managed to alter the course of automotive history. How? He was in charge of making the world aware of Volkswagen’s emissions crisis.
The incident occurred in 2013, when Kappanna was a member of a small group of engineering students at West Virginia University in Morgantown, a renowned academic institution for its work on car emissions. Kappanna discovered a technique that would later expose the lie that Volkswagen had been telling the world about the emissions from its vehicles while attempting to complete a grant application from the International Council on Clean Transportation that had been given to him by the director of his program.
The university had intended to come up with a method of measuring the emissions of moving automobiles. All of the emission testing were conducted at the time in garages using specialized equipment because it was found to be more simpler than analyzing the emissions from a moving car. For the fieldwork, Marc Besch (Switzerland) and Arvind Thiruvengadam (India), two of Kappanna’s fellow graduating students, were selected.
Who Unveils Volkswagen?
The automotive industry was altered by Hemanth Kappanna’s research. However, GM fired the person who revealed Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal this year.
In sweltering Bengaluru’s green suburbs, Dr. Hemanth Kappanna, 41, is ready to burn off some calories on this hot midsummer day. “I never played sports. I used to do yoga in the US. I can now run 10 kilometers in one hour, he claims. The former General Motors (GM) employee began endurance training at Cubbon Park, a spit of lush land in the center of the city, after arriving back in India in May of this year.
Kappanna then discusses the events leading up to his abrupt departure from the Detroit-based automaker, where he worked from December 2014 until his participation in a West Virginia University research analyzing engine emissions. “I don’t feel guilty. He says in a phone interview with ETPanache that if he could go back in time, he wouldn’t change a thing. In place of laboratory studies on consumer vehicle engines, Kappanna and his colleagues at West Virginia University (WVU) conducted road tests in 2014 utilizing a portable emission testing system. Their findings paved the door for stricter pollution control standards by upsetting the cozy equilibrium between Big Auto and the regulatory bodies.
VW was dragged into the confessional. German company acknowledged utilizing “defeat devices that diesel automobiles use to tamper with pollution test results. Forbes said that the corporation was had to pay fines totaling more than $25 billion.
In December 2017, Oliver Schmidt, the general manager in charge of VW’s Michigan engineering and environmental division, received a seven-year prison term. Later, some of GM’s own goods were questioned. Just over a year after Schmidt’s imprisonment, on February 4, 2019, Kappanna was let off by GM as part of a restructuring “corporate reorganization
How was Volkswagen discovered?
Seven months have passed since Volkswagen’s scandal with the emissions tests, and the firm is still struggling.
The only car manufacturer in the top 10 to see a decline in sales was VW, whose sales of automobiles fell by 0.5% to 420,000 in the first quarter of this year, according to the most recent data from Europe.
The corporation is dealing with managerial instability and expensive legal challenges in the US, in addition to dwindling sales.
All because of a piece of software that, for seven years, deceived US diesel emissions tests.
The cars may appear to comply with rules even though they didn’t since the software could recognize when it was being tested and lower dangerous exhaust gases.
The International Council on Clean Transportation, a clean-air advocacy organization, tested the vehicles independently because it believed they were such an excellent illustration of how diesel might be a clean fuel. This led to the discovery of Volkswagen.
Why did VW fabricate emissions data?
Volkswagen misrepresented the diesel vehicles for years in order to obtain EPA and CARB certifications that permitted the vehicles to be marketed in the U.S. Volkswagen knew that the diesel vehicles would dodge U.S. emissions rules. Volkswagen hesitated until authorities threatened to withdraw approval when EPA and CARB eventually started to catch on.
When was Volkswagen discovered?
According to Volkswagen’s analysis, “irregularities” also affect data on CO2 emissions and fuel usage.
[6]
Volkswagen repairs for 1.2, 1.6, and 2.0 diesel engines in Europe are approved by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA).
[7]
[8]
Volkswagen lowers its initial projections for CO2 emissions issues and now believes that only 36,000 vehicles are impacted.
[9]
Michael Horn, CEO of Volkswagen US, steps down, citing a “mutual agreement” with the business.
[10]
Volkswagen said it will provide “significant compensation” and auto buyback offers to its US customers for approximately 500,000 2.0-liter vehicles.
[11]
Audi engines were modified, according to California regulators, to produce less CO2.
[12]
Volkswagen consents to admit guilt in the emissions scandal and pay fines totaling $4.3 billion. The charges involve six Volkswagen officials. [13][14]
In order to settle legal allegations relating to the duty of oversight (Verletzung der Aufsichtspflicht in Unternehmen), Audi has agreed to pay a fine of 800 million euros in Germany[17].
Prosecutors in Braunschweig, Germany, have indicted Winterkorn and four other executives.
[19]
Prosecutors in Germany have filed charges against Ptsch, Diess, and Winterkorn for stock market manipulation.
[21]
Prosecutors in Braunschweig, Germany, have charged an additional six people.
[22]
The Volkswagen emissions controversy, often known as Dieselgate[23][24] or Emissionsgate[25][24], started in September 2015 when the German carmaker Volkswagen Group received a warning that it had violated the Clean Air Act from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
[26] The government discovered that Volkswagen had purposefully set up its turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines so that their pollution controls would only activate during laboratory emissions testing, allowing the vehicles’ NOx production to meet US norms during regulatory testing. In actual driving, the vehicles released up to 40 times more NOx. [27] In model years 2009 through 2015, Volkswagen installed this software in around 11 million vehicles globally, including 500,000 in the United States. [28] [29] [30][31]
How long did Volkswagen engage in fraud?
After five years, the Volkswagen emissions-cheating scandal appears to be among the most expensive corporate scandals ever. Just over five years after the scandal began, a new former top Volkswagen official was put on trial, and the case is far from over.
Who broke the scandalous news about Volkswagen?
Research by Hemanth Kappanna contributed to a controversy that still affects Volkswagen. He received two months’ income and a round-trip ticket to India in February.
Indian-born engineer Hemanth Kappanna, who was fired by General Motors in February, assisted in exposing Volkswagen’s conspiracy to falsify emissions testing.
Credit…
The New York Times’ Nick Hagen