How Students Helped Expose The Volkswagen Scandal

One of the most iconic car brands in the world is facing a $77 billion loss after lying to consumers.

Would you believe the uncovering of their very expensive fib can be traced back to some curious students?

The CEO of Volkswagen, Martin Winterkorn, stepped down earlier this week when it was revealed his company had been cheating on their emissions tests with the help of a sneaky little device in their cars.

The “glitch” was first discovered by four researchers from West Virginia University – two professors, Gregory Thompson and Dan Carder, and two students, Marc Besch and Arvind Thiruvengadam – who embarked on a road trip to test the tailpipe emissions of diesel cars.

(Diesel engines have more energy per litre and emit less carbon-dioxide, but release a large amount of nitrogen oxides instead.)

In 2014, they took a BMW X5, a Volkswagen Jetta and a Volkswagen Passat on the road.

The quartet soon discovered that the BMW’s emissions were as described on the tin, but the Passat was producing 20 times the amount of nitrogen oxide than what was permitted by the California Air Resources Board. The Jetta, meanwhile, was producing 30 times more than what Volkswagen was claiming.

Though it would take a few months to feel the reverberations, the jig was indeed up for VW.

Thiruvengadam insisted on not taking all the credit for exposing Volkswagen in an interview with Autoblog.

"It wasn't that we tested three vehicles and brought down a corporation,” he said.

But, the aftershocks of their discovery were undeniable.

The West Virginia researchers reported their findings at a conference in San Diego, where members of the Environmental Protection Authority just happened to be in attendance.

Needless to say, their interest was piqued.

After being confronted with the findings, the 78-year-old company recalled 500,000 cars, citing “various technical issues” as the real culprit. However, further investigation by the EPA revealed the truth.

Volkswagen had actually installed a “switch” in their diesel cars that only turned its pollution controls on when it knew it was being tested.

The company now faces $25 billion in fines in the United States, where VW broke into the market six years ago by touting its supposedly “clean diesel” cars.

Already, the company’s value has dipped by $41.5 billion. Add these figures together with the money required to recall and repair 11 million affected cars worldwide… and yeah, it looks like this is going to be an uphill battle for the remaining VW execs not sacked as a result of the scandal.

Porsche chief executive Matthias Mueller has been installed to replace the outgoing Winterkorn, and he’ll certainly have his work cut-out for him, attempting to salvage Germany’s biggest employer.

As for those of us in Australia, the ACCC is going to investigate local VW cars. It is believed as many as 50,000 diesel Volkswagens in Australia could be affected, not to mention the Audis and Skodas that also fall under the VW umbrella.

So, if you’re tinkering away on some experiment at school and find something fishy, make yourself heard. Just remember: with diesel-fuelled power comes diesel-fuelled responsibility.