VW's Ex-Boss Was Told About Emissions Issues Way Back In 2014

It wasn’t until September 2015 that it emerged VW had been ‘cheating’ US emissions tests, but it turns out Martin Winterkorn - then the company’s CEO - was aware of potential issues a long time before that. VW released a statement on Wednesday - in which it stated that it “deeply regrets the incidents related to the diesel issue” - following legal action brought to it by shareholders who claim the company misled them by withholding information about emissions fiddling activities.

VW strongly denies any wrongdoing in this area, saying that the “Management Board duly fulfilled its disclosure obligation under German capital markets law.” However, the interesting bit of the statement is much further on. It talks of how the California Air Resources Board (CARB) got wind of “irregularities” with the emissions put out by the EA189 diesel engine thanks to a study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). A memo about the study was sent to Winterkorn himself, although VW declined to say just how much attention he paid to it by going on to say: “to which extent Mr. Winterkorn took notice of this memo at that time is not documented.”

Winterkorn received another memo the following November, which reported “on several then current product defect cases and referred to a cost framework of approx. EUR 20 million for the diesel issue in North America.” It wouldn’t be for another nine months that the whole mess was revealed to the public, when the Environmental Protection Agency released its Notice of Violation on 18 September 2015.

Even though VW is desperately trying to move on from the emissions scandal, it’s clear that it’ll be a long time before this unfortunate chapter in the company’s history draws to a close.