VW is not the emissions monster of press design

VW's Polo Vivo plant in Port Elizabeth. Picture: Supplied

VW's Polo Vivo plant in Port Elizabeth. Picture: Supplied

Published Oct 6, 2015

Share

Why would the world’s leading vehicle manufacturer, with a deserved reputation for engineering excellence, resort to fooling the exhaust emission tests of the Californian authorities, and then use the fake results as a selling point?

Salespeople and advertising agents will seize upon the strongest selling point available, so part of the question is easily answered and, maybe, they didn’t know what was going on in the computer innards of the cars.

That still leaves the question of motive. Why go to all that trouble? Why risk being caught in what is clearly a fraud?

It does not make any sense but, unless and until the courts or a Volkswagen (VW) investigation gets to the bottom of it, one can speculate. So, here goes.

First a bit of background. California is the one state in the US that arguably has the most stringent vehicle exhaust emission regulations in the world. They are much tougher than those applicable in Europe.

California’s tough limits

The present European standard limits nitrous oxide emissions from diesel-engine car tailpipes to 180mg for every kilometre travelled. California demands far less – 30mg for each kilometre. (Tougher European regulations will limit diesel emissions further to 80mg per kilometre).

On the face of it this seems quite reasonable. It seems astonishingly tough on closer inspection.

Well, one milligram (mg) is one thousandth of a gram. A level teaspoon holds 5 grams or 5 000mg. That means California’s regulations insist that a diesel vehicle’s emissions must be no more than one teaspoon of nitrous oxide every 167 kilometres travelled.

Since nitrous oxide is a lighter-than-air gas, it does not hang about on the ground and build up. It dissipates, so we can safely say that the pristine lungs of Californians are in safe hands.

So safe, in fact, that their lungs would remain pure if one of them jogged next to a qualifying diesel car on an open road for 167km while the car slowly emitted a teaspoon of nitrous oxide that floated upwards immediately on leaving the tailpipe.

Even if this Californian managed to attach his or her lips to the car’s exhaust pipe while jogging (admittedly it would be a major acrobatic feat and impossible for a host of other reasons), the amount of nitrous oxide he or she would inhale would not evoke much more than a small giggle. Nitrous oxide is commonly called laughing gas and is used by dentists to numb the pain of tooth extraction.

This brings us back to the VW engineers, and the question of why they decided to rig the California emission tests.

One possible reason is that the tests themselves are in some ways “fake”.

Consider. There are almost infinite ways of driving a diesel VW Golf – as many ways and more as there are individuals who own one. A little old lady going shopping will treat her Golf differently from an Italian boy racer driving his on an autostrada. Traffic conditions vary; wind blows or does not; road surfaces differ; speeds, acceleration, gear use, braking habits – they all vary.

Is there really an emissions test that takes account of all these variables? Um… answers on a postcard please, or in no more than 140 characters.

It is possible that without being told to do so by management, some clever VW geeks thought the emission requirements were so ridiculous that they tweaked the onboard computer to make it possible to fool the Californian tests. They might even have hooted with laughter while doing it.

Ad agency homes in

What follows next in this scenario is inevitable. The VW advertising agency hunts around for a unique selling proposition, and homes in on the US obsession (especially in California) with clean air. Copywriters obviously seize upon the Californian test passes as a reason (not the only one) for buying a diesel VW.

As VW’s diesel vehicle sales go up, there is no reason to doubt the test results. Besides, there are many more reasons for buying a VW – good design and build quality being the obvious ones (especially when measured against cars produced in the US by US car makers).

Of course, heads will now roll in VW. The chief executive has already fallen on his sword. Others will no doubt follow. But VW will survive. Any company that can recover from the rubble of 1945 to become the biggest vehicle manufacturer in the world will not collapse because of a few milligrams of nitrous oxide.

But fraud is fraud and it is a crime in the US. The avalanche of US VW owners forming class actions to claim billions of dollars from VW is already beginning to move. US lawyers are gleefully rubbing their hands together at the prospect.

The story is as big as or bigger than the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The media frenzy will take a long time to calm down thanks to factors VW has nothing to do with, the prime one being the ubiquitous health and safety culture. A close second is the fashion for blaming the private sector for everything as though providing goods and services people want is a crime against humanity.

So, let us apply some common sense to this idea that minute amounts of nitrous oxide is a massive danger, a poison of the worst type. It is not. As mentioned, dentists have been using it as an anaesthetic for years and years. Teenagers use it at parties to make everyone laugh. Some have suffered by overdoing it.

But a substance can be safe in small quantities and poisonous in large ones. Making a laboratory rat ingest its own bodyweight in sugar every day for a week may well kill it or cause horrible things to happen to its innards.

The experiment does not prove that sugar in your tea will do the same to you.

So, spare a thought for VW as it faces the tidal wave of opprobrium from the media, from self-righteous politicians, from smug competitors, and, of course, from those many people who think that the motor car should be banned altogether.

If you own a VW Golf and are deeply concerned about the emissions from its exhaust, a few common sense actions will make you feel better.

- Don’t accelerate unnecessarily;

- Get your car serviced regularly;

- Turn your engine off if you are stationary for more than one minute;

- Stick to the speed limits, especially on the motorway.

Lastly, do not hold your breath in the traffic. It is not necessary.

* Keith Bryer is a retired communications consultant.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

BUSINESS REPORT

Related Topics: