Volkswagen – the Lance Armstrong of the global auto-mobile industry
The scale of the VW scandal is quite breathtaking
Although at the moment this is not directly a political story there are likely to be huge political implications. These will be on top of the financial disturbance to the markets that has started to happen. The dramatic drop in the VW share price already is going to filter through to many areas.
One thing that comes to mind immediately is how come there are apparently much tighter clean air standards in the United States compared within the EU. Is the automobile industry in the EU a more powerful lobby and able to influence the authorities more?
What is going to be done with the 11 million vehicles that are said to have the software? Presumably they are going to be recalled. Given what we know it is possible that the cars will end up being more fuel hungry and perhaps perform less well than before. After all that seem to have been the point for VW and why the deception was necessary.
Will owners of the cars be ready to submit their vehicles to the recall if they think that it could perform worse when they get it back?
The idea of trying to circumvent a test so that it only applies in specific circumstances reminds me very much of Lance Armstrong and what has been prevalent in the world of professional cycling for many years.
One thing’s for sure: the big move to diesel private cars that we’ve seen in the last decade is likely to come to a standstill.