General Motors today announced plans that will position the company to “capitalize on the future of personal mobility,” using its OnStar network (“nearly two decades of connectivity leadership”) and by “owning the customer relationship beyond the vehicle.” Given what GM announced (car sharing services with autonomous vehicles), “owning the customer…
Earlier we saw a report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) who showed the Dieselgate misbehavior affects not just Volkswagen/Audi 2.0 liter TDI Diesels, but cars from other manufacturers, even ones running on gasoline. That report has gained enough attention that BMW had to respond, since one of its vehicles was…
This summer Royal Dutch Shell worked in the Chukchi Sea to drill for oil, in the open ocean above the arctic circle. That’s a recipe for disaster, which Shell itself admitted would, if oil drilling were fully developed there, cause a large number of large oil spills in a terrain which…
Is the only way Volkswagen can repair its image is to completely erase Diesel engines from its car line-up, and to completely switch to plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles? That’s what Robert Llewellyn says in this rant. Why is his opinion important? In addition to being an actor, TV show…
Now that we’ve spent a week learning about emissions test cheating at Volkswagen, this new information shouldn’t be surprising: Volkswagen was warned at least twice against cheating. Both Volkswagen’s own staff and one of its suppliers, Bosch, warned against efforts to detect and thwart emissions tests, according to reports in the…
A week ago the automotive world was put into turmoil over news that Volkswagen had, allegedly, committed widespread fraud with their emissions test results. Specific Volkswagen and Audi vehicles were emitting lots more pollution than allowed, while their EPA emissions ratings garnered praise and government subsidies by supposedly being the cleanest Diesel vehicles…
With 11 million VW 2 liter TDI Diesel cars emitting 10-40x the NOx pollution they’re allowed, what’s the effect on the environment? According to reporters at The Guardian, it adds up to 1 million tonnes extra NOx in the atmosphere. Those 11 million cars were bought under a promise of being ultra…
According to a study published last week by Transport & Environment, the scandal over Volkswagen’s cheating on emissions testing is a tiny part in a huge problem. T&E is a Europe-focused research group working on environmental issues related to transportation. Their study, Don’t Breathe Here, performed independent testing of a…
Today, Volkswagen announced the “Dieselgate” scandal – VW’s cheating on emissions ratings – affects at least 11 million Volkswagen cars sold world-wide, and that the company is setting aside 6.5 billion euros, or about $7.3 billion — to cover the cost of fixing the cars to comply with pollution standards and…
VW’s inaccurate emissions tests for 2009-15 TDI Diesel passenger cars was not an “accident”, according to the EPA. It’s not like VW’s engineers misconfigured some testing equipment and accidentally came up with bogus numbers. You might do that one year, like Hyundai/Kia did, but a company like Volkswagen would not…
It’s been a tumultuous weekend for the Volkswagen Group. Last weeks announcement that the EPA and CARB are investigating the company over allegations that VW had fabricated TDI Diesel car emissions results has thrown a monkey wrench into the credibility of not only the VW Group but the whole system of validating emissions…
Back in 2009-10 the VW Group released a series of TDI Diesel vehicles with excellent emissions results. Those emissions were so good that at that time I wrote a piece saying VW’s TDI vehicles are not your grandfathers dirty diesel, and even raised the question whether VW would need hybrid vehicles…
Before the VW Group follows through on their promise of electric car leadership by 2018, VW has to face an EPA and California investigation over evasion of emissions laws. Within minutes of publishing my previous piece saying the VW Group may be in the opening stanza’s of an electric vehicle symphony,…
A couple years ago, the VW Group promised that by 2018ish VW would be a electric vehicle major player. With the Audi e-tron quattro concept electric SUV, and the Porsche Mission E, and the VW e-Golf, we may be seeing the opening stanza’s in what may become a fully electrified automotive…
Tonight was the second of the 2016 Republican Presidential Candidates debate. While I didn’t watch it in person, it appears the R’s were just as insane as one would expect. Bernie Sanders, a candidate on the Democrat side, live-tweeted the debate using the #DebateWithBernie hashtag. It was great – and…
