Nissan CEO says it would be hard to hide effort to falsify emissions data

If one company has been caught, you can bet there will be more

VW is in serious trouble - its sales are likely to fall as hard as its reputation. The Guardian is reporting that its software is responsible for obscuring an additional 1M tons of carbon put into the atmosphere, mostly in Europe.

I hope the head of Nissan is aware of what's going on in his company.

I'm curious to know what many of the posters on this site who decry government intervention in the marketplace, who claim that the current US president is a socialist, think of this.

Or was it somehow the government's fault that VW had been lying for years and knowingly put the health of millions of people at greater risk?

I don't like big government, but in this case I side with them.

This was a carefully planned conspiracy to commit fraud on a monstrous level. Anything short of CRIMINAL charges of individuals would be obscene.

Be interesting to see if the EU is as hard on "their" company as they'd be if Google got caught red-handed doing something like this.

It is going to be interesting seeing how far and wide this scandal is going to spread out in the next couple of months. Euroncap, the European rating institution and their commissioned testing companies, German politicians, other German automobile companies, EU delegates and so on.

Ban diesels in Europe like they effectively did in Japan over a decade ago and we will get better air quality in Europe ( you can check online data at places like aqicn.org). Europe will also get the hybrid models that get released in Japan but not in the Europe because they promote these dirty diesels instead locally first.

I kind of find it hard to believe that the VW CEO had no knowledge or involvement in this,

He declined to comment specifically on what happened within VW but said that a lot of people likely would know about such an effort within a company.

Exactly what I said yesterday. This wasn't a few "rogue" guys in the engineering department doing something on their own. This was a years-long, deliberate conspiracy that undoubtably involved nmerous senior managers. A major house-cleaning is in order.

Diesel was already under pressure in the EU (with a shift in official, media and consumer focus from CO2 to NOx), but VW have really snatched defeat from the jaws of their global top spot victory.

Ghosn will seek a much-needed boost for Renault-Nissan's electric strategy, but is being diplomatic for now.

Losers: (short term) VAG, OEMs overly dependent on diesel - Fiat, PSA, resurgent Mazda? (long term) Big Oil.

Winners: other German brands, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Bosch, Tesla, Panasonic, etc.

Expect: iMini (a la i3) with gasoline/petrol range extender to replace Mini D; more hybrids in the interim as battery and generation (commercial and domestic) tech evolves to meet demand, aggressive assault by Chinese EV makers.

The other German brands are not out of the hot water yet since they also sold many diesel cars in Europe claiming they also matched VW's emission level. BMW's Clean diesel is one, MB's Blue TEC Clean diesel is another. Basically I believe all three are guilt which leads to how much the German government actually knew about this?

PM Marcel is going to face some hard questions in the following months that is for sure.

I never heard such deception done by a car giant. Just like Toshiba and Olympus or the chinese dressed beaf company. I feel the end of VW brand.

If you're in doubt with other German brands, Audi and Porsche are more likely to have the same chip as they are under VW group.

I forget if was Ford or Chevy but one of those companies did something similar to improve Milagros. It was Ford. During testing they emitted good levels of oxides of nitrogen. But at highway speed the oxides went up. This was by design to circumnavigate the test process. I guess VW wasn't paying attention. Orperhaps they are using ford ignition controls ????

I find it amazing that policing bodies like EPA are not the ones catching this (much sooner) if they where doing the job the tax payers pay them to do. GM has authorized urea delete kits for their diesels in medium duty trucks...what does that mean? I have no use for the VW brand for the same reasons they had to know what was happening. One of the most over engineered grocery getter out there. As a mechanic and service manager I always tire of the arguments with customers about the cost of the maintenance and repairs. As with most euro cars...fantastic cars from the drivers seat but not the pocket book.

Emission nonsense!

It won;t affect consumers - VW make very popular cars, that all that counts to the vast majority.

Sometimes when I drive behind a vehicle, I could smell the exhausted fume. Now I know how they get past the emission test without slipping some cash into the staff's palm. Most of them are pick-up trucks, but I also see some BMW as well.

The scam was in the diesel division - hopefully this will make consumers move to electric vehicles faster.

It will screw toyota sale business

One more reason to support electric cars.

Nissan CEO says it would be hard to hide effort to falsify emissions data

"Trust me, we've tried it!".

One more reason to support electric cars.

One more reason to support bicycles.

This is a dark stain on the soul of humanity. This action robbed the world's children of a better world. Whoever programmed the software is guilty of an unpardonable crime. Who was the programmer???

Don't put all the blame on the programmer doing grunt work while the actual instigators come from the management.

The programers were just following orders, the people who loaded up into the on board computer was following orders, the people who were doing the reliability test were following orders, the marketers that provided the projection numbers of sales based on crippling performance figures were following orders, and so on.

The upper management knew about this and made an informed decision.Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn claiming “I am not aware of any wrongdoing on my part.” and calling the diliberate act as "irregularities" shows he is still not willing to admit his fault makes his apology as shallow as water on top of ice.

These guys should be indicted for criminal negligence and diliberate act of obstruction against stockowners.

These guys should be indicted for criminal negligence and diliberate act of obstruction against stockowners.

Why should the stock owners get off so lightly? Shouldn't owning a company carry some responsibility?

If they were informed which obvious they were not. They got cheated out as much as the people who bought the car with the malicious code embedded within the car. Now their investment had been knock down by who knows how much at the end. They bought those stock because they thought it was a good investment not some shady company that cheats to gain profit.