The car manufacturer wanted to be at the forefront of the electrification of driving – now VW is facing a disaster by 2025 at the latest, because that is when the next stage of the EU emissions regulations will come into effect.
VW was anything but a pioneer in the electric car. When it became clear after 2010 that cars would become electric, other manufacturers rushed ahead – BMW, Nissan, GM and Renault, for example. The then VW boss Martin Winterkorn, on the other hand, promised to achieve the emissions target of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer on average (from 2020) that had been agreed in Europe at the time in a different way: with optimized diesel engines and lightweight construction. The fact that compliance with the cars’ emissions targets could be tricked at the time also played a role in the calculation. The vehicles were manipulated on rolling test benches until the desired values were achieved.
Source: Stern
