Volkswagen has recently come under fire for defrauding the clean air act in the US. According to one of the engineers of VW, the problems arose in 2006, when they realized that they were not able to satisfy both of their main stakeholders. The government wanted an emission conscious motor, whilst the consumers wanted a powerful and reliable motor. The engineers were not abe to keep up with the demands of the consumers and the government, therefore they decided to please the consumers by producing a motor that was able to cheat the emissions test and could keep the consumers happy.
The repercussions of their decision to cheat the government has resulted in them losing billions of dollars and they have also lost face to the public, their consumer trust has basically swan dived to the floor, and in order to alleviate as much of the responsibility as possible they used their current CEO as a scapegoat and he resigned. For a company that has decided to turn their back on the government in order to please their consumers, to lose the trust of the consumers is the same as corporate suicide. They cheated on the test as a temporary solution, yet they never even tried to fix their emissions problems they just swept it under the rug in order to keep on gaining revenue without having to disclose their unethical management.
Two days ago on the ninth the court finally managed to capture and deem guilty one of the head engineers for VW, he stepped forward and claimed he was guilty of omission of the truth and breaking the trust of the government and consumers and for that he was guilty.
What VW did was unacceptable even if they were just trying to please their consumers, if they did not have the ability to meet the demands of the market they should not have cheated in order to be able to operate in the market. They cheated the government and their consumers and worst yet, they endangered the planet by not adhering to the clean air act of the US.
References:
ROGERS, A.
VW Engineer Pleads Guilty in Emissions-Cheating Scandal
“soon realized…that the engine could not meet both customer expectations as well as new, stricter U.S. emissions standards.”
In-text: (Rogers)
Your Bibliography: Rogers, Aruna. “VW Engineer Pleads Guilty In Emissions-Cheating Scandal”. WSJ. N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.
GEUSS, M.
Volkswagen engineer pleads guilty in emissions scandal [Updated]
62-year-old engineer James Robert Liang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government, commit wire fraud, and violate the Clean Air Act. Liang, currently a California resident, worked for Volkswagen’s diesel development department in Wolfsburg, Germany from 1983 to 2008.
In-text: (Geuss)
Your Bibliography: Geuss, Megan. “Volkswagen Engineer Pleads Guilty In Emissions Scandal [Updated]”. Ars Technica. N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.