Volkswagen Emissions Scandal

Presented By:
Yongwei Wang

Winter 2022
 Contents
 Company profile

 Case background

 VW reaction

 Reponsibility Violation

 Ethics and
Utilitarianism

 Conclusion

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 Company profile
 Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer established in 1946

 Headquarter in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany

 Ranked as the 3rd largest manufacture in 2009 according to OICA

 The word Volkswagen means "People's car" in Germany

 Its current CEO is Martin Winterkorn

 Production facilities in 27 countries

 Sales in 153 countries

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 Case Background
 Volkswagen cheat nitrogen oxide emission test
 Contained software to turns off emission control
 Emit nitrogen oxide up to 40 times the standard
 In 2014 Environment Protection Agency (EPA) investigation begins
 Volkswagen argues third party tests are flawed
 3 September 2015 Volkswagen admits using software to trick regulator
 18 September 2015 scandal goes public
 7 October 2015 Volkswagen expects recall of cars in January-2016

4
 VW Reactions
According to the EPA, Volkswagen insisted for a year before the scandal
broke that the discrepancy was simply a technical malfunction. Volkswagen
only fully admitted to manipulating vehicle emissions tests after being
confronted with evidence of a "faulty device“.
On September 22, 2015, Group CEO Martin Winterkorn made a public
statement acknowledging the incident and immediately stopped selling all
vehicles with 2.0-liter diesel engines. The EPA said the fine would be
$37,500 per vehicle, and VW has sold more than 480,000 diesel vehicles in
the U.S. since 2008, so the initial estimate is that VW would have to pay a
maximum fine of $18 billion.
As a result of this incident on September 23, VW Group CEO Martin
Winterkorn announced his resignation and Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller
took over as VW CEO.
In June 2016, the Fuchs Group reached a settlement with the relevant
entities for $15 billion.
 Legal reponsibility Violation
Volkswagen not only disregarded EPA laws and
restrictions but also invented software to avoid
them
 Environmental reposibility
violation

Volkswagen vehicles were emitting an enormous amount of nitrogen

oxides negatively impacting the United States air.
 Ethics
 Virtue

Volkswagen's conduct did not carry any virtue

 Vices
 Dishonesty
 Lack of professionalism
 Lack of responsibility

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 Utilitarianism
 Benefit

Made profit for certain period of time

 Costs

 Company’s reputation is now damage

 Global sales declined

 Fine up to $ 18bn (€11.6bn)

 Rise downtime cost

7  Branding Damage
 Conclusion

Failure of overall CSR

Huge amount of air pollution
Recall the defective cars
Huge penalty and fix cost

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References

1. BBC news, on emission test [Online]

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34857404
2. CNN News, on Volkswagen scandal and cheating [Online]  
Link:
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/28/opinions/schneier-vw-cheating-
software/
 3.Volkswagen Drops 23% After Admitting Diesel Emissions Cheat.
Bloomberg. 21 September 2015 [2020-02-05].
 
Thank You