Saturday, April 23, 2016
Associated Press
WOLFSBURG, Germany
It’s been a bad week for German automakers.
Volkswagen said Friday that a diesel emissions-cheating scandal would cost it an astounding $18.2 billion just for 2015, while Daimler revealed that U.S. authorities are sniffing around its tailpipes.
Both companies saw a niche with U.S. buyers who wanted performance, gas mileage and clean air. So they marketed their diesels as alternatives to boring hybrids.
But there is growing evidence that neither was able to back up the claims without violating pollution standards. Some management experts put the blame partly on ambitious, top-down corporate structures.
VW already has admitted to programming diesel cars so they pass U.S. emissions tests in labs but spew illegal amounts of pollution on real roads. On Thursday, Daimler said the U.S. Justice Department asked the company to investigate irregularities in diesel emissions in its Mercedes brand vehicles.
Steve Berman, a Seattle attorney who has sued Daimler over Mercedes diesel pollution, said both German automakers saw a niche in the U.S. for high-performing green cars.
“They saw the opportunity,” he said. “They weren’t able to live up to their words but they went ahead anyway.”
There also could be some complicity on the part of European governments. Karl Brauer, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book, said governments, as well as Mercedes, VW and other automakers, have known for years that diesels could meet emissions standards in the lab, but not on real roads.