The Study That Brought Down Volkswagen

Volkswagen’s dirty little secret got out last week: the auto giant rigged its diesel cars with a defeat device that reduced pollution during official emissions testing but relaxed on real roads to improve driving performance. But the details at the heart of the news have been openly available since May 2014. That’s when West Virginia researchers reported the results of tests exposing the high rates of NOx emissions in two VW models, Jetta and Passat.
Reuters spoke with Daniel Carder, a member of the research team, about the $50,000 study that could (and should) end up costing the world’s biggest carmaker billions:

“Vehicle A” was a 2012 VW Jetta.
“Vehicle B” was a 2013 VW Passat.
“Vehicle C” was a BMW X5.

 

excerpt of the In-Use Emissions Testing of Light-Duty Diesel Vehicles in the United States report

from citylab



autoblog 2015 article on this scandal

allegations of the cheat from EPA